Of Poor Warlocks and Confused Wizards
by Amrit.48
Summary: Merlin happily lived his life in the 20th century until some wannabe Dark Lord rose from the dead. Now, the immortal warlock must deal with moody teenagers, insufferably nosy headmasters, devious talking portraits, toads dressed in pink and a raising army of the newest Dark Lord. Merlin may be getting too old for this... And what's up with these strange runes inside the castle?
1. CH 1 - Voldemort Loses His Nose

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter.**

* * *

 **Voldemort Loses His Nose and Mr. Wizard Makes an Entrance**

There were times Merlin hated the Old Religion. As if making him the destiny's favorite pawn wasn't enough - oh no, it had to screw Merlin's life every time it got its chance even after 1500 years.

Which seemed to be right now, as Merlin suddenly found himself collapsing in the middle of the New York City. He was just taking a lovely walk through the Central Park when his body convulsed in pain. Merlin's vision went black and he doubled over in an attempt to hold off what he knew was about to happen.

Not that it worked. After all, since when did anything go the way Merlin wanted it?

'Oh _come on_!' were his only thoughts before his magic exploded from his body. It was leaving him as if someone opened a dam. To make matters worse, Merlin felt his magic being drawn to (probably) whatever caused his current state in the first place. And so, in a desperate attempt to do _something_ against this thief of magic, Merlin subconsciously let go of his body.

'Woops' Merlin thought as he saw his body fall to the ground from a bird's point of view. It wasn't the first time Merlin's Sight left his body, but he was usually in charge of his Sight's movement. This time, however, Merlin was carried in the same direction his escapee magic was going in.

Merlin had no idea how long the flight took as he was doing his best to stay by his senses and not to get too much dizzy by the speed he was travelling at. He barely registered flying over the ocean when he suddenly stopped and found himself levitating in the middle of a - was that a graveyard?

Merlin mentally groaned (since his body was on a totally different continent and he could not - unfortunately - express his discomfort physically). He _hated_ graveyards. As if he needed a reminder of his own abnormality.

However his self-pity was soon overtaken by a slight horror of what he saw in front of him.

It was a huge cauldron that seemed to be collecting magic from the nearby Ley Line that Merlin coincidently happened to be connected to as well when back in NYC. But that wasn't what caused Merlin's disgust - after all he too sometimes used the Ley Lines to recharge himself after a particularly difficult spell. No, what caused Merlin's horror was seeing what was being done to that magic. The collected pure magic was being twisted into something terrible inside that cauldron, something so dark that whatever was happening inside it made even a millennium and half old warlock draw back in disgust.

Merlin had of course seen similar rituals before. But that was in times when the Old Religion rituals were still rather common. And while Merlin had no idea how that _someone_ found about this long forgotten spell, he was sure as heck going to make sure he ended it.

Merlin's terror turned into a cold fury that helped him break from the magical flow and return his Sight back to his body. The flight back was even more nauseating than before as Merlin was willingly speeding himself up. This proved to be a terrible idea when his Sight _slammed_ back into his body with enough force to cause a future head concussion.

Merlin opened his eyes and carefully got back on his feet only to wince at the sight in front of him. Three knocked out no-majes laid around him, probably caught up in his involuntary magical blast. Merlin quickly mumbled a spell to make sure they were going to be alright and straightened himself on unsteady legs.

Normally, Merlin would take some time to plan ahead. After living for as long as he did he had managed to learn the importance of patience. This time, however, his head decided to stop working now that it's taken a there-and-back-again flight between Europe and the NYC.

'What's the worse that can happen anyway, right?' Merlin thought and pushed back his inner voice that told him something about famous last words. 'Europe, graveyard and a cauldron. Ugh, this is not how I imagined my day to go…'

He thought with a sigh and massaged his temples to ease the terrible headache he got from his Sight entering back into his body. He shook his head in a slight attempt to clear it before his eyes flashed a brilliant gold. A large whirlwind appeared around him and Merlin flew once again - only this time his body joined him on the trip.

The flow of stolen magic was already gone so he had to follow small traces of magic left behind by his own Sight. This made already tired Merlin even more irritated than before. He already lost almost a third of his magical reserve to whoever casted the spell and now he has to waste even more of his power on getting back to the thief. 'Bloody brilliant… _'_

* * *

Harry Potter just wanted it to end. He wanted to wake up in the boys' dormitory and be told by Ron that they were late for breakfast again. He wanted the last 24 hours to be just a terrible nightmare he dreamed out of his nervosity before the Third Task.

Unfortunately, Harry knew that was not the case as he felt his body tremble in pain. Right now he was fighting for his life - no, he was being _played_ with. Only a few minutes ago Lord Voldemort rose from the cauldron and summoned his Death Eaters. He gave Harry a 'chance' to fight against him. And shortly before that Cedric…

Harry swallowed back his tears. 'No, I will not let them see my cry.' He thought with determination as he tried to get back on his feet. The Death Eaters around him mocked him for his attempts as Voldemort raised his wand to send yet another _Crucio_ at him when-

Suddenly, a large gust of wind slammed into the ground in between Harry and Voldemort and threw them all off their feet. Harry grunted as his back hit the ground and his vision became foggy. He blinked a few times before looking back at the Death Eaters… only for his eyes to land on a man that was not there a minute ago and whom Harry had never seen before.

The man stood with his back turned to Harry, supporting himself on his knees and breathing heavily. He was dressed as a muggle, wearing a red hoodie and a pair of jeans. His black hair barely concealed his ears from behind and he appeared to trembling a little. Harry wanted to scream at the man to run away from here before Voldemort killed him, but he found himself unable to do so out of pure exhaustion. Harry couldn't make a sound so he only resigned himself to watch.

The muggle raised his arm in front of him in the direction of a dumbstruck Voldemort and his followers: "Just give me a moment alright? Whew, that took-heh, took a little more energy than I-, I thought it would..."

"What- How dare you stand in the Dark Lord's way?" one of the Death Eaters screamed.

"Heh? The Dark Lord? Oh well that actually explains a few things," the man said with an American accent as he finally seemed to have caught his breath, "only an idiot like that would-pfff… hahahaha!"

The black haired man exploded in laughter the moment he finally got a good look at the ensemble in front of him. He quickly started coughing in a poor attempt to hide his outburst, before he once again looked up.

"Sorry for that," the man apologized, but Harry could still hear the barely concealed mirth in his voice, "I just… it must be pretty damn disappointing to go through all the trouble for the ritual to work only to come back, ehm… incomplete?"

The man finished and vaguely pointed in the air. Some of the Death Eaters looked at each other in confusion while others stepped back in shock and fear. Voldemort stared at the man with a blank expression though his red eyes shone with dark fury. After a moment of no reaction the man apparently felt a need to specify and pointed somewhere at his face.

"The nose," he explained calmly as if he did not just insult the most powerful and dangerous Dark wizard of all time. He then thoughtfully went on with his speech: "I mean, whoever casted the spell must have messed up somewhere because it's usually just- hey!"

The man screamed in surprise as numerous curses were sent his way. He ducked most of them by kneeling down on the ground while the rest of the spells seemed to hit the stones that the man levitated in front of himself with a flick of his wrist. The Death Eaters, seeing how unsuccessful their spells have been, wanted to continue bombarding the man with more jinxes before the voice of their leader stopped them.

"Enough!" Voldemort ordered his men silently but with such a cold voice it made all of the Death Eaters freeze. The man quickly got on his legs again and dusted himself off.

"Thank you! Jeez, don't you people have any manners? Interrupting someone mid-sentence is sooo… _prattish_!" The man complained in a whiny noise and crossed his arms over his chest. He seemed to be utterly unbothered that he almost died a few seconds ago and that the man he insulted was currently glaring daggers at him. This insulted man who spoke not a few seconds later.

"Nonverbal magic... knowledge of the Old Rituals... reflexes of a seasoned warrior…" Voldemort counted off of a mental list as he tilted his head to a side in a disturbing resemblance of a snake, "just _who_ are you, Mr. _Wizard_?"

The mysterious man froze at Voldemort's words, as if he only now fully realized his previous actions. After a tense moment the Mr. Wizard suddenly seemed to relax again and shrugged his shoulders.

"Wouldn't you like to know," he answered cheekily. Voldemort's eyes narrowed, but before he could do anything, Mr. Wizard did a circular motion with his hand and conjured a large fireball without uttering a word. He then proceeded to casually throw said fireball in the direction of a rather stunned Dark Lord.

But then suddenly the fireball twisted away from its intended path and flew straight into the cauldron, away from the inherent target. The cauldron swallowed the fireball whole, not leaving a single spark behind with a satisfying _'Burp!'_

A stunned silence followed, during which everybody present - including Mr. Wizard - stared at said cauldron in shock.

"Oh," seemed to be the only intelligent reply Mr. Wizard could think of, "Oh, ok… did not see that one coming!" He finished somewhat lamely before he seemed to gather his wits back: "Hey! That wasn't meant for you, you bloody-black-disgusting-dirty cauldron! Wait your turn will you? First I deal with Misters Dark Robes here and then I destroy you!"

At this point everybody present stared at Mr. Wizard with disbelief for seeing a man whose magic was _eaten_ by a cauldron only for said man to start _arguing_ with the said cauldron. Before anybody could say anything over the bizarre situation, Mr. Wizard put his hand into his pocket only to take out a white stick - that then proceeded to grow into a large white staff with intricate runic writings and beautiful blue crystal at the top.

"Let's see you try eating this, heh!" Mr. Wizard said with a smirk at his apparent victory over a large piece of cookware as he quickly moved his staff in a circle in front of him. Suddenly, blue energy exploded from the top of the staff and was sent in a straight direction of many very confused and Death Eaters and their Dark Lord. Some of them barely had enough time to cast a shield. Not that it was much use as the spell proceeded to easily slam into their protective barriers and sent the said wizards flying off their feet into nearby tombstones. The rest of the Death Eaters (who stood to Mr. Wizard's side and were therefore left out from the first spell's hit radius) quickly sent a barrage of curses at the man. Mr. Wizard casually twisted the staff above his head and released another wave of magic _this time_ hitting all the Death Eaters. He then angrily slammed his staff into the ground (mostly for dramatic effect as nobody was left standing anyway) and a third wave of magic washed over the entire graveyard, causing its share of destruction.

Harry could do nothing but stare with his eyes wide open in horror. This man, this _wizard_ , just casually defeated the whole army of Death Eaters along with Voldemort as if they were nothing but flies to him. Watching the man, whose face Harry was still yet to see, the young boy felt fear clutching at his heart. Who was he? How could anyone be this powerful?

Harry apparently wasn't the only one with those thoughts. He could only see Voldemort's terrified expression before he disapparated out of the graveyard. The Death Eaters, seeing their master's retreat, quickly followed suit until there were only Harry, Mr. Wizard and one downed Death Eater, who seemed to have trouble breathing, left.

Mr. Wizard, who only minutes ago seemed undefeatable in Harry's eyes, suddenly swayed on his feet and had to lean on his staff for support. Harry could see his shoulders moving heavily as if the man was breathing. Harry considered alerting the man to his presence, but he felt fear clutch his heart at the man's actions and decided against it. Harry only prayed the man wouldn't see him lying on the ground.

After a minute that Mr. Wizard spent catching his breath, the black haired man straightened his back only to twitch a moment later when he saw the bloodied body of the last left Death Eater. Only, Harry realized with horror, that particular Dark Wizard had the infortune of having been thrown onto a side of a tombstone where he must have heavily hit his head. Considering the amount of blood on the Death Eater's robe, it was easy to tell said man was not going to live for very long. Harry recognized the dying man as Avery.

Mr. Wizard stood without moving, watching Avery for what seemed like an eternity before he silently whispered some words in a language unknown to Harry. They sounded like a prayer. He then sighed and turned around-

Only for his eyes to land on Cedric's dead body. Harry could finally see half of the man's face and was surprised to find himself looking at a rather friendly looking young man with eyes of vibrant blue. Those said eyes stared at Cedric's body and blinked blankly a few times. A thoughtful expression was suddenly replaced by fierce determination as Mr. Wizard moved to Cedric's body.

Suddenly, great protectiveness overtook Harry and he quickly tried to get back on his feet, reaching for his wand and pointing it at the said man. _I will not let anyone hurt Cedric's body!_ Harry thought determinedly.

Just as Harry was about to cast the first spell that came to his mind, he froze in shock at seeing Mr. Wizard's actions. The strange man gently laid down his staff next to Cedric's body and put his hand on Cedric's forehead while he raised his other arm in Avery's direction. He then closed his eyes and burrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he began murmuring in a different language.

Harry could only watch in fascination as golden threads appeared around Avery's body and left him at the same time as the Death Eater breathed out for the last time. The golden threads then proceeded to move in the direction of Mr. Wizard until they reached his outstretched arm. He gently caught the tendrils in his hand and put his hand on Cedric's chest. The golden lines spread themselves over Cedric's body until they disappeared into the boy's body a moment later.

Cedric's chest moved underneath the stranger's hand as Cedric took a shaky breath.

Harry's jaw dropped opened and he staggered back. 'What the- _?'_

A moment later, which Harry spent processing what had just happened, Mr. Wizard slowly got up and clumsily tried to pick up his staff again from the ground. As his fingers brushed the white wood of the staff, he swayed on his feet and staggered a few steps forward. In an attempt to regain his footing, Mr. Wizard looked up - and looked straight into Harry's eyes.

For a moment neither of them said anything. Harry found himself getting annoyed when he saw Mr. Wizard's eyes widen in shock and fear, as the Boy Who Lived believed that out of the two of them, Harry was the one who had the right to feel shock and fear right now. After a minute of awkward silence, Mr. Wizard finally blinked.

"Oh," he said looking at Harry.

 _You saw that?_ His blue eyes asked.

Harry slowly nodded.

 _Yep, saw the whole deal._ Harry's green eyes answered.

Mr. Wizard looked at the destruction over the graveyard that he himself caused: "Ooh."

He then looked at Harry again who pointed looked down near the stranger's feet. Seeing the confusion in Mr. Wizard's eyes (who looked at Harry as if asking _What's wrong with my sneakers?_ ) Harry pointed at the ground near him with his wand as if saying: _See what you've done?_

Mr. Wizard looked behind himself in confusion and stared at Cedric's body. Cedric's _sleeping_ body. Cedric's _alive_ body.

"Oooh."

 _Well #%$¥£#%..._ said Mr. Wizard's last look that he gave Harry before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell down to the ground unconscious. The Boy Who Lived was left standing in the middle of the graveyard with a blank expression on his face, surrounded by a scourged graveyard, large black cauldron, a dead Death Eater, an unconscious Hufflepuff and a snoring wizard.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Hi! First off – I am not a native speaker of English so please excuse my mistakes and feel free to point out any nonsense sentences. I would appreciate any kind of constructive criticism but please, if you simply don't like my story then no need to send hates at me. I already tried writing fanfiction before and got discouraged after one bad review and gave up on the story (which was actually a good thing as the fanfic really wasn't that good…).**

 **However, I actually really want to continue writing this story as I enjoy it a lot so I hope you will at least find it a little likeable :). The first few chapters might seem slow going (right now I'm writing chapter 5 and Merlin is yet to get back to Hogwarts, ugh…) but I hope you'll be patient with me. If there is something in particular you would like me to explore feel free to suggest it. I read a lot of Merlin/HP crossovers and loved seeing Merlin getting involved in all kinds of funny situations and causing general mayhem and wanted to give it a try.**

 **I hope you will enjoy my take at Merlin/HP crossover and I'll try posting the second chapter soon. I don't know how long it will take me to write chapters as I mostly do it for fun anyway but I can promise you I will not abandon this story (as long as at least few of you like it). I already have it planned out so no worries there either :).**

 **Sorry for such a long author's note. Until next time!**


	2. CH 2 - Harry Just Wants To Sleep

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Merlin**

* * *

 **Harry Just Wants To Sleep and Mr. Wizard Has a Hangover**

Harry grunted as he landed hard on the floor. His vision went foggy again, but he managed to make out that he appeared at the edge of the maze. Harry was clutching the goblet in one hand while the other laid around - still sleeping - Cedric and Mr. Wizard. All three of them covered in dirt, blood and dust, Harry realized, they must have made quite the sight.

As if to confirm Harry's thoughts, the deafened silence around him quickly turned into a wild loud outburst. Harry groaned as the noise once again caused a spike of pain to shoot through his head. He closed his eyes and began praying for a nice long sleep.

That was not to be as Harry felt someone shifting his body around. The boy opened his eyes begrudgingly to see what annoying wizard wanted to stop him from his - in Harry's opinion - well deserved rest. Pair of well-known glasses swan in front of Harry's hazy vision.

"Harry! _Harry!_ " Dumbledore asked him as if he couldn't already tell it's him. Harry groaned in affirmation and wanted to doze off into sleep again-

Harry's eyes went wide open. He needs to tell Dumbledore!

"He's back!" Harry gasped out and grasped Dumbledore's arm to make sure the headmaster understood him. "Voldemort is back!" Seeing a spark of understanding flash through the man's eyes, relief flooded Harry and he calmly laid down again. He had delivered the news and now the headmaster would take care of it.

"My God! Diggory!" He heard Fudge's voice say somewhere to his left, "he's deadly pale and barely breathing! He must be tended to immediately!"

So Cedric was truly alive… Harry realized. And was he even ever dead? Maybe Harry's head played tricks on him and he imagined the entire thing with his death. Maybe Mr. Wizard was just a random passerby muggle who Harry imagined had his magic eaten by a cauldron. Yeah, Harry decided as he slowly began losing his consciousness, that's what must have happened.

"And what is this _muggle_ doing here?" Fudge cried out completely mortified.

Oh, did that mean Harry just brought a muggle to Hogwarts? Woops...

Someone shook with Harry once more and woke him up again. Harry felt himself being raised on his unsteady legs and supported by someone. He barely registered Dumbledore telling him to stay where he was (which thank you very much, but moving was the last thing on Harry's mind right now considering the fact that his leg was probably still bleeding back from when he was attacked in the Maze…) as the headmaster went off to control the crowds. Harry saw Cedric's parents surround their son's body as he was tended to by a nurse. Mr. Wizard laid further back and Harry could see him surrounded by a bunch of flabbergasted wizards.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Harry realized he should probably tell someone that Mr. Wizard was not an enemy - Harry hoped.

An opportunity presented itself when Professor Moody came to Harry and supported him, so that he could stand better.

"It's alright son… I've got you… let's get you to the hospital wing," Moody said as he began leading Harry to the castle.

"Dumbledore said... to wait?" Harry mumbled incoherently, "and Mr. Wizard is a good guy… you have to tell them…"

"Mr. Wizard?" Moody repeated and grunted as he carried Harry through the panicking crowd, up into the castle and up the stairs to a tower. It wasn't until they entered a certain room that Moody spoke again: "The man is not a muggle?"

Harry's vision swayed as he was forced to sit in a chair: "No… but his magic got eaten by a cauldron."

Moody made no reaction to Harry's helpful explanation and instead forced the boy to drink some sort of a potion. He then continued to question the poor boy about Voldemort's return until Harry remembered he forgot to tell Dumbledore about the traitor at Hogwarts.

Turned out he needn't to. Moody soon revealed himself to be the hidden Death Eater and proceeded to attempt to kill him. Harry was somewhat getting used to the idea that everybody seemed to want him dead tonight when the door flew out of their hinges and Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape entered the room. Moody was soon tied up and Harry witnessed his transformation into Barty Crouch. It was a little alarming to realize that his DADA teacher was actually a Death Eater escapee from Azkaban while the real Moody spent the whole school year stuck in a trunk. The following revelations that Barty was forced to tell due to Snape's Truth Potion made Harry's head spin even more. The pure insanity of the man in front of him made Harry's headache worse.

After the interrogation was over, Harry was once again lead - this time by Dumbledore - somewhere and denied his rest. Harry blinked in confusion as he realized he somehow ended up sitting in a chair in the Headmaster's Office with a very distraught godfather in front of him, without Harry even realizing how he got there.

As Dumbledore told Sirius everything that they have just learned from Barty Crouch, Harry was numbly playing with Fawkes feathers. The phoenix had healed his leg, but Harry was still incredibly tired. He was in no mood for retelling his own side of the events after he touched the portkey, but in the end, Harry was forced to by Dumbledore.

And so Harry began his story. He started with his entrance to the maze and how he and Cedric decided to touch the Goblet at the same time. Harry told both his listeners about the graveyard they arrived at, but when he got to the next part, Harry stumbled upon his words.

"Yes, Harry?" Dumbledore nudged him carefully to make him continue.

"Cedric he…" Harry laid his head in his hands as he tried to make sense of what happened. Did the other boy truly die, or was that merely a fragment of his imagination? Maybe he just got hit with a stunning spell and Harry in his confusion thought him dead?

"He- he got hit with a spell," Harry decided to say in the end. He looked up at the headmaster and saw Dumbledore furrow his eyebrows, but he did not stop Harry from moving on with his story.

He told them of the cauldron-

"A cauldron?" Sirius asked confused.

"Yeah - Voldemort came from it and then it ate fireballs," Harry explained.

"Wh-"

"Sirius," Dumbledore stopped Sirius mid-sentence with a warning in his voice. Seeing his godfather put in his place, Dumbledore motioned for Harry to continue.

And so he did. Harry spoke of the ritual, the three ingredients and Voldemort's eventual rise. He then told them all he could remember from the speech Voldemort gave the Death Eaters and in the end described the 'duel' between himself and Voldemort.

"-and then a gust of wind appeared and threw us all of our feet. That's when Mr. Wizard came…"

"Mr. Wizard?" Dumbledore interrupted Harry for the first time, looking for a confirmation, "you speak of the man who you brought here, yes?"

Harry nodded as Sirius asked in confusion: "What man?"

Harry let Dumbledore do the explaining for once as his throat was getting sore: "Harry returned from the graveyard with unconscious young Mr. Diggory and an unknown man who - I must admit - I have misjudged as a muggle due to his rather unusual choice of clothing."

Sirius frowned: "And his name is 'Wizard'? What kind of name is that?"

"That's just what Voldemort called him," Harry clarified, "he never actually got to introduce himself as he was too busy beating the Death Eaters around."

"What?"

"Perhaps it would be better to let Harry finish, Sirius!" Dumbledore threw a glare at Harry's godfather. Seeing his chance to continue, Harry quickly explained.

"So - Mr. Wizard appeared in the middle of the graveyard and insulted Voldemort-"seeing his godfather about to ask another question, Harry quickly supplied, "he's missing his nose. Mr. Wizard thought it was funny. He said something about the ritual going wrong as Voldemort was supposed to come back whole or something..."

Dumbledore thoughtfully played with his beard and stared at the ceiling. Harry decided to go on with the story despite the headmaster's apparent inattention.

"After that the Death Eaters attacked Mr. Wizard, but he ducked the spells and summoned a… ball of flames? He then tried to attack Voldemort, but the fireball somehow got eaten by the cauldron. After that he took out a staff and released some sort of magical wave that knocked everybody off their feet. Voldemort and the Death Eaters disapparated away after that and Mr. Wizard... he... _healed_ Cedric. He blacked out after that."

A long silence followed Harry's last words as both of his listeners seemed to think about what happened. Finally, Sirius seemed to have found his voice again.

"Alright, I give," he said and turned to Dumbledore, "who is this 'Mr. Wizard'? Someone you know and _forgot_ to mention to the rest of us?"

"Actually, I do not have the slightest of ideas," Dumbledore answered while his eyes twinkled with happiness as if he just received a large portion of lemon drops, "Harry, you mentioned Mr. Wizard used a staff for casting magic?"

Harry nodded in confirmation: "Yes. But Voldemort commented on him using nonverbal magic as well."

"Wonderful," Dumbledore said and winked at Harry, "Absolutely fascinating. Well I must say for once that I cannot wait to meet this man. And I believe Harry would like to take his well-deserved rest, no?"

Harry couldn't have been happier at hearing those words.

Once Sirius transformed back into a dog, Dumbledore lead their small group into the infirmary. When they arrived, Harry's friends and the Weasleys wanted to question Harry about what happened, but fortunately, the headmaster stopped them. While Dumbledore was reassuring Madame Pomfrey about Sirius, Harry's eyes wandered around the room until they landed on three unconscious figures lying on separate beds around the room.

"Will they be alright?" Harry asked silently and the room went quiet.

"Oh yes" Madame Pomfrey answered as she was helping Harry get into a bed. "Profess- Mr. Moody will be fine after he gets his sleep and a proper meal. Mr. Diggory seems to have no injuries and will probably awaken sometime next morning. As for the muggle… well that is hard to say. From some reason any spells I and the ministry have attempted on him have rebounded or simply disappeared."

"The Ministry?" Dumbledore asked with a frown.

"Yes. They have tried to erase his memory, but the spell did not seem to work. I have expelled them out of my infirmary after their seventh attempt - Merlin knows what might have happened to the muggle's brain if they went on!"

"And that was a good decision Poppy - I believe the _wizard_ would not be very happy to have woken up without any of his memories of what happened last night." Dumbledore revealed to his shocked audience.

"He's a wizard?" Ron asked incredulously and stared at the lying body of Mr. Wizard, "Merlin's beard, where did he come from to be dressed like that?"

'Where from indeed,' Harry thought as his mind slowly drifted to sleep with the large mystery of Mr. Wizard still bugging him at the edge of his mind…

'Just who is that man?'

* * *

Merlin woke up with what felt like the biggest hangover of his life - which was a lot to say. He automatically summoned his magic for a simple healing spell he learned a few centuries back, but he was stunned to find his magic reserve almost completely depleted. He quickly put up invisible magical barriers around himself to stop any more of his magic escaping. Merlin then tried to take in his situation.

He laid on a bed in a room where someone just decided to have a shouting match - not the most comfortable way to wake up when one has a headache.

"...Malfoy was cleared! … old family… donations-" a male voice at the verge of panic cried out. Merlin had to stop himself from turning the man into a donkey - how can anyone's voice be so annoying?

"Macnair!" Another voice screamed, this one belonging to what Merlin presumed must have been a kid.

In that very same moment Merlin's memories of what happened came back - his magic outburst, the cauldron, Mr. No-Nose and his lackeys and a black haired kid with green eyes who apparently saw the whole deal… including the moment Merlin Mirrored Life and Death…

Merlin groaned. 'Great going, Merlin,' he thought to himself sarcastically, 'you managed to win the prize for the Biggest Idiot of the Millennium. Arthur will be so proud…"

Merlin mentally slapped himself. 'No, not thinking about that dollophead now. I'm probably going to hear all about this the next time I see him anyway…"

The Warlock used his magic to feel his surroundings. 'Ah, Hogwarts' he thought with a smile as wave of nostalgia hit him. He quickly subdued those feelings and carefully opened his eyes and took a look around himself. He saw a group of red-haired people standing around a bed with the same boy he met at the graveyard. Looking at him now, Merlin was surprised to realize the boy seemed somewhat familiar. His eyes then moved to a large black dog that Merlin quickly recognized as either a magical dog or a transformed animagus considering the amount of magic he felt coming from the dog. He then followed the angry gaze of the dog (that was way too sharp and understanding - totally an animagus then) to a wizard that Merlin was shocked to recognize as the British Minister of Magic - Mr. Fudge. However, it was the old man standing against the Minister that caused Merlin's eyes to budge. It was Albus Dumbledore, one of the few New Magic wizards that Merlin quite honestly respected, despite never having met the man. And, considering the amount of power he could feel radiating from the man, it seemed the stories weren't exaggerating.

"... to start a panic that will destabilize everything we have worked for these last thirteen years!" Fudge screamed angrily at Dumbledore.

'Nope.' Merlin thought and quickly shut his eyes, pretending to be still asleep. 'No way you're getting involved in yet another world crisis, Merlin! You know what happens when you…'

"Voldemort has returned." Merlin heard the Hogwarts's headmaster say.

'Oooh boy.' Merlin realized with a horror, 'that was _Voldemort_? Did I really just fight the latest 'Dark Lord?' Great going, _Mer_ lin. So much for not getting involved in the Wizarding Wars...'

Merlin thought and cursed himself. If only he had waited after his Sight returned to his body yesterday. Maybe if he had, he wouldn't have drawn the attention of Voldemort, Dumbledore and the Ministry to himself. That was the deadly combination of alerting the 'bad guys', 'good guys,' and the magical 'policemen' to his existence.

Maybe it was time to change identities? He heard Japan was lovely this time of year…

"... kicked out of office for suggesting it! Half of us only feel safe in our beds at night because we know the dementors are standing guard at Azkaban!"

Merlin couldn't help but snort: "Yeah right. Because we're all just _sooo_ happy the soul suckers and psychopaths get along so well."

Silence filled the room.

'Woops. Did I say that out loud?'

Merlin opened his eyes again only to find everybody in the room staring at him.

'Yes I did.'

"Excuse me?" Fudge yelled in outburst and Merlin quickly put his hands to his temples in order to ease the pain that followed the Minister's shout.

"Oh nothing," Merlin said cursing his big mouth and waving at the Minister dismissively, "please carry on with your shouting match. It's not like there are people here with terrible headaches or anything… or people with actual brain cells…."

"You- what-" Fudge stuttered and Merlin found himself strangely satisfied with making the Minister of Magic lose his words. "How dare- a muggle like you- speak to the _Minister_ of Magic like _that_?"

'Huh? A muggle?' Merlin blinked in confusion before looking down at his clothing.

"Oh, my deepest apologies, sir." Merlin said and threw a disarming grin at Fudge leaving him utterly confused, "I seem to have forgotten to dress myself accordingly to such a glorious occasion, as is meeting the great British Minister of Magic himself. I hope you will forgive me my rudeness at wearing my favorite pair of jeans and a hoodie. Next time, I will be sure to come in a ceremonial suit."

Seeing the Minister staring at him utterly dumbfounded, Merlin got off the bed with a great sense of achievement. 'Who knew insulting people can be such a great cure for headaches?' He thought cheerfully as he took a look around the room searching for his belongings. He saw some of his things on a nearby table and went to get them.

"Now, I hope you'll excuse me, but I am seriously late to work. My editor will probably cut my wage if I don't deliver the article about 'Curses and Jinxes of Native Americans' by tomorrow noon and some of us actually need to pay our rent-" Merlin stopped in his blabbering when he realized he was missing a very important object. "Where is my staff?"

He asked and turned to the rest of the room as if any of them held the answer. Instead what he received back were looks of varying degrees of shock, confusion and bewilderment. Dumbledore seemed to be the only person in the room to look at him not as if questioning his sanity but with twinkling eyes of amusement instead. Merlin wasn't sure what that said about the sanity of the man in front of him if he found Merlin 'humorous not weird' to a certain degree.

The somewhat familiar black haired kid merely blinked a few times before he shook his head. Apparently he was used to stranger things that babbling wizards insulting the Ministers and so he answered Merlin's question.

"It probably stayed behind at the graveyard." The boy said and looked Merlin in the eyes.

"Stayed-" Merlin face palmed and took a deep breath. He then took his hand off and stared at the boy as if he couldn't believe what he just heard. "You left my _staff_ behind at the _graveyard_?"

"Hey! You should be grateful Harry hadn't left _you_ behind at the graveyard!" One of the ginger boys screamed at Merlin.

"Ronald!" A woman, who Merlin guessed as his mother, berated the boy.

"What?" Ron asked back and looked at his mother, "you were thinking the same thing!"

Merlin's mind meanwhile went into overdrive. It quickly connected the facts together - Voldemort, Hogwarts, _fricking lightning scar on the kid's forehead_ \- and Merlin realized why the boy looked so familiar.

"You're Harry Potter." Merlin said as he finally caught on - with a serious delay.

The entire room stared at the warlock in shock and Harry asked unbelievingly: "You didn't know?"

"I haven't exactly been around England lately." Merlin lamely defended himself as he intensively observed the boy.

At first look the boy didn't look very extraordinary. His emerald eyes watched Merlin while his lightning scar was partially hidden behind his unruly black hair. The kid looked tired and Merlin could see a number of injuries around his body. His magical power was impressive for someone his age but he still had a long way to go before reaching his full potential. But the thing that caught Merlin's attention was something only Merlin could see thanks to his natural attunement for magic.

Harry Potter was tied to a destiny. He was a Chosen One.

Merlin had seen his share of people tied to important destinies over the span of his life. People destined to fight the wannabe 'Dark Lords' or 'World Conquerors.' He had watched many of them suffer until they fulfilled their duty to the world and were set free to live their lives. Merlin used to envy these people, as he himself was still bound to his own seemingly endless destiny. Sure, the 'Chosen Ones' had their own share of misery in their life, but all of them eventually reached what Merlin was denied. Freedom. Being with their loved ones. Death.

Of course, Merlin no longer felt envy towards those individuals - after all, 1500 years can turn a lot of grudges into simple acceptance. Honestly, Merlin didn't mind waiting for his destiny as much as he used to (even though the prat was taking his bloody time…).

Now, there were times Merlin helped the Chosen Ones on their path, to easy the weight of the world on their shoulders. He was a teacher, a mentor, a friend to many of them. But he never actively sought out these individuals. After all, he knew most of them would reach their destinies in time, even without his intervention… So he didn't bother searching for all of them anymore.

It might seem unreasonable or selfish to many people, but Merlin did not care. He didn't think intruding on other people's lives from the day they were born and raising them just because they were chosen to one day do something very important, was the right thing to do. Those people _especially_ deserved a childhood without knowing that one day they will carry the future of the world on their shoulders. It seemed like a mean thing to do to the Chosen Ones. Didn't they have the right to do what they wanted, instead of being told which way to go by Merlin every time?

However, it was times like this that Merlin cursed himself for not intervening sooner, blaming himself for not looking out for the Chosen Ones. Because no fourteen-year-old kid should have eyes like Harry did.

Eyes filled with (admittedly, well hidden) pain, frustration, self-doubt and fear.

It made Merlin feel incredibly guilty for letting a child like that go through so much suffering.

Still…

The same kid left _his_ Staff of Avalon behind at the frickin graveyard! And Merlin _really_ liked that staff. Not only did he endlessly use it to brag to Arthur about 'that time he saved his sorry arse, _again_ ', but it was also one of the last relics of the Old Religion. Not to mention how it helped him channel his magic into pure energy - which made fighting annoying little wizards a lot easier. And the kid just left it behind for anyone's taking! Sure, some part of Merlin's mind argued, Harry had no way of knowing how important the staff was… but still! What if Voldemort sent his lackeys back to erase evidence of his return and one of the idiots decided to take his staff?

'They would most likely explode from too much magical input...' Merlin's mind supplied and he groaned. 'Great… and she hates getting dirty!'

That was another problem. As Merlin grew more into his status of an actual 'creature of magic' over the years (whatever that meant... Merlin tried not to think about it too much), he found himself accidentally giving certain objects embedded with great amount of magic their own sentience. And over the years the Staff of Avalon had grown an _incredibly_ high esteem and became unbelievingly vain for a simple piece of wood with a crystal on top.

So - to let her lying on a muddy ground in a dark filthy graveyard was probably not the best way to treat her… Merlin could already imagine her refusing to let him use her for the next fifty years.

"Ah, yes." Dumbledore stopped Merlin's thoughts with an uncomfortably knowing look in his eyes. "As - and please correct me if I presume incorrectly going by your accent - an American you are probably not very well aware of our local celebrities. It is rather interesting for you to have found yourself in our country under such, ehem, circumstances."

Merlin's eyes twitched slightly as he realized he must had accidentally spoken in the wrong accent and given himself away.

"Eh, actually I grew up in England," Merlin said, jumping easily into his old accent of perfect British, much to the surprise of everyone in the room, "I have merely come back to visit my motherland… before I had to turn in my article…"

Merlin blinked at the weak excuse even by his meek standards before clearing his throat and continuing: "I am truly sorry for interrupting your, ehem, _conversation_. Minister Fudge I hope you will forgive me my previous rudeness. My friends often tell me I say things out loud that I shouldn't." With those words Merlin turned away from the flabbergasted Minister and turned to look at Harry again. "Mr. Potter, I am grateful that you brought me here to be treated, but if you'll all excuse me now, I have a staff to pick up."

During his speech Merlin slowly made his way to the door. He turned back to his dumbfounded audience and slightly bowed: "Ladies and Gentleman have a nice day."

With those words he closed the door and darted down the corridor. He wasn't sure how long the wizards would stay confused and he didn't want them to try and stop him from escaping, as they probably would have once they shook of their bewilderment. Not to mention the nurse that would had undoubtedly wished to keep him in the infirmary for few more hours at least. Merlin grew up surrounded by one of the greatest physicians alive so he would know how healers think.

He rounded a corner and ducked out of the way of a group of puzzled Hufflepuffs-

Only to come face to face with Peeves in the next corridor. The ghost and warlock stared at each other for a moment, both of them unsure if what they were seeing was real.

"Emrys." The poltergeist said with a deadpan face.

"Peeves." Merlin answered in a similar matter.

"Back to help me bring chaos to the castle?" Peeves asked with a hopeful expression on his face.

"Nope. But I would appreciate if you didn't tell anyone I was here…" Merlin replied with a similarly hopeful tone.

"Aah but Emrys~." Peeves sang with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "How could I keep such an interesting fact from the rest of my friends?"

"Alright first off - what friends? Secondly, if you tell anyone I'll make sure the Baron finds out who was responsible for ruining the Slytherin's victory feast at end of 1306." Seeing Peeves on a verge of tipping over to his side after that particular threat, Merlin begrudgingly decided to throw in a bit of bribery, "Thirdly, the next time I come back, I will let you lose on something. Deal?"

"Ghaghagha!" Peeves chuckled terribly as he floated above Merlin's head. "You have yourself a deal Emrys. I won't forget!"

Merlin cursed under his breath and quickly went to hide in the nearest classroom. Fortunately it was empty. Still, of all the ghosts and portraits he had to run into, it had to be the only one that didn't respect him at all. He often wondered how Peeves came to be. He once left the country for a decade or so and when he came back to the castle, Peeves had taken control of the entire stronghold. Even after the Founders transformed Camelot into Hogwarts the bloody poltergeist stayed.

'Focus, Merlin!' The warlock berated himself. 'Firstly, deal with your staff, then your article and then worry about ghosts.'

Merlin took a deep breath and summoned his now returned magic. He opened his eyes just as they burned gold and teleported away.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **WOW! I was NOT expecting such an amazing response! Thank you, thank you all for all your follows, favs and especially for all of your wonderful reviews! They always made my day and I really hope you won't be let down by my second chapter. Many thanks to _Mellie_ for pointing out my mistake - I actually made the same one in this chapter as well so it was super helpful!**

 **So... yep, in this story Hogwarts are built upon the ruins of Camelot and I will explore that a little more later. Also someone asked if Arthur will be in this story - sorry folks, but Arthur is dead and he will stay that way in my story for now. BUT that doesn't mean he and Merlin don't talk from time to time, as this chapter already suggests.**

 **And one more thing - I know that in many stories Merlin is pretty depressed and blaming himself for everything that ever went wrong. Well honestly, I never liked that kind of Merlin. I prefer the cheeky servant that teases Arthur endlessly while secretly saving his life behind his back... So basically, my version of Merlin is of (a little) bored immortal that lives under false identities to pass the time while waiting for the prat. It may seem optimistic to some of you, but I believe that if Arthur had a way to communicate with Merlin, he would never let his best friend lock himself in a room and fall into endless despair. That's also why, in the beginning, Merlin won't know things about Harry or Voldemort or the Order and such, because he simply didn't want to get involved in the Wizarding Wars at first. Hope it makes sense and that you don't hate my version of Merlin for leaving Harry alone in his fight.**

 **Another long author's note, oh well... (sorry!)**

 **Next Chapter: Mr. Wizard Gets an Offer He Can't Refuse**

 **(I'll try posting new chapters once a week, at least for now.)**


	3. CH 3 - Mr Wizard Gets an Offer

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Merlin**

* * *

 **Mr. Wizard Gets an Offer He Can't Refuse**

Merlin stumbled as he finally arrived at his destination. This was the thirty second cemetery he visited today and he could feel his headache returning again. He took a deep breath, straightened his back and took a look around.

"Yes!" Merlin screamed and threw his arms in the air as a large grin spread on his face. He finally found the place!

Sure - there was no actual evidence that this was the place Voldemort gained his new body. It seemed like Merlin's earlier thoughts about Voldemort's attempts to erase everything he left behind were true. The cauldron was gone as well, which made Merlin feel a little uncomfortable, however, he knew that without the actual ritual, his magic will not be stolen by it again - not even his fireballs. Man, Merlin did not expect that one! But Merlin could still feel slight traces of the ritual in the air and so he knew he was at the right place.

Merlin took a look around himself until he finally saw it. The Staff of Avalon laid in the grass a little bit to his right looking as magnificent as ever. Merlin slowly approached it; vary of its apparent inactiveness.

Of course Merlin was right to suspect her, as the moment his hand touched the white wood, the staff zapped him.

"Ouch!" He cried out and pulled his slightly burned hand back. "Seriously?"

The staff didn't answer, but she seemed to be silently challenging Merlin to dare take her again. Merlin took the challenge by creating an invisible protective magical barrier over his entire body (just to be sure) and took up the staff. He could feel her anger at him finding a way around her revenge, but Merlin was sure he would get a lot more of her 'zaps' before she finally forgave him.

But now he had to get out of here before anyone else came back to check the crime scene and caught him-

"That is a very beautiful staff, Mr. Wizard."

Merlin looked at the sky. 'Really? Again?'

He sighed and turned around: "Thank you. I quite like it myself. That's why I came to get it back. Now please don't mind me- actually, forget you ever met me. I will just go back home while cursing myself for not noticing you sooner…"

The Headmaster of Hogwarts laughed silently: "Forgive an old man like me, Mr. Wizard, a bit of curiosity. It is not every day I get to meet so much of an interesting person such as you!"

Merlin's eyes twitched at Dumbledore's comment about himself being an 'old man'. Seriously - Merlin was older than him just by a couple of _centuries_.

Then Merlin realized something else was out of the place in the Headmaster's speech.

"Mr. Wizard?" He asked and tilted his head to a side, silently asking the Headmaster for explanation.

"Oh yes - that is what young Mr. Potter called you. Apparently, you never got to introduce yourself as you were - how did he put it? 'Too busy beating the Death Eaters around' I believe." Dumbledore explained as his eyes twinkled. After seeing Merlin made no effort to prove him wrong or to explain himself, the man continued.

"Of course I guess it would be more fitting to call you 'Mr. Druid,' wouldn't you agree?"

Merlin froze.

'Wait. What?'

It took all of Merlin's strength not to breathe out in relief. Dumbledore thought he was a druid!

Dumbledore mistook Merlin's shocked silence as confirmation of his theory.

"Staff is the most common weapon of choice for druids. They are also famous for nonverbal casting rivaling that of the African wizards. And lastly they are known as Protectors of the Secrets of Old. Surely a druid can carry the knowledge of the Old Ways of Magic as well - such as the ritual Voldemort no doubt used to regain his body back." Dumbledore listed all the signs that led him to his theory.

In a way, Merlin was impressed. Dumbledore thought of an answer to the 'Great Mystery of Merlin' (as Eric liked to call it) that was very far from the actual truth - but dangerously close, given the small amount of evidence the Headmaster had to work with. Merlin better carefully act out the rest of their conversation or risk revealing too much to his liking.

"'Regain his body…' What makes you think Voldemort didn't actually come back from the dead?" Merlin asked the other man, choosing attack as his best defense.

"I have my ways of finding out the truth about things. As a journalist, you surely understand that." Dumbledore explained while mentioning yet another part of Merlin's current identity, the warlock accidentally gave away. However, it were the Headmaster's next words that completely threw Merlin out of the loop.

"Now then - what would you say about teaching the Defense against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts?"

Merlin's mind went blank.

"What?"

Dumbledore gave Merlin a cheerful look: "Unfortunately, our last DADA teacher suffered an… _accident_ that had made him... _unsuitable_ to return to his position. That leaves the school without a teacher for what - considering recent events - is probably the most important subject for the students right now. The job comes with accommodation at the castle of course as well as, dare I say, a rather _hefty_ wage. Perhaps even greater than that of your current occupation?" Dumbledore ended his proposition with a wink at the stunned warlock. A warlock who just decided, the Headmaster must be completely nuts.

Merlin blinked: "Do you always recruit random people at graveyards for the job? If so, I worry for the safety of students…"

Dumbledore smiled mischievously: "Only on special occasions."

Merlin shook his head: "Why though? What makes you even think I'm qualified? I don't think you are the kind of a person that would ever willingly put your students at risk by hiring a potentially dangerous man as a teacher…"

"That is true." Dumbledore agreed. "However, I believe that as a man who willingly stood up to Voldemort defeated him and his men and saved two of my students, will not turn out to be a choice worse than the three other teachers I hired in the last four years. One of them carried Voldemort in his body, the other was a memory eraser and the last one a Death Eater escapee from Azkaban. Tell me, compared to those individuals - do you feel unsuitable? I am sure teaching will come easy to a man like you."

Merlin's eyes widened at Dumbledore's list of failed DADA professors. What was the man doing to _his_ school? Merlin had half the mind to say yes to his offer just to make sure the poor students were taught at least some sort of basic self-defense! And to Merlin teaching was easy, considering the fact he had already spent many years as a teacher. For Avalon's sake, he was a DADA teacher for seventeen years at Hogwarts back in the 16th century. Though he guessed the curriculum changed a little bit from those times…

Still, Merlin felt no desire to come back now, when yet another Wizarding War was about to begin. For an immortal like him, drawing too much attention to himself during such times could be very… _bothersome_.

But then a pair of green eyes filled with familiar pain flashed through Merlin' head…

Merlin sighed after a moment of contemplation: "Alright. I accept your offer."

Dumbledore smiled as if he wasn't expecting any other answer. The warlock couldn't shake a feeling that Dumbledore played him too well. Bloody wizards…

"Splendid!" Dumbledore cried out and his eyes twinkled with mirth. "In that case I hope you won't mind returning back to the castle with me to sign the corresponding documents. I believe you shall have no trouble using the same Portkey that took Mr. Potter and Mr. Diggory here in the first place? I have taken the liberty of using it to get to the right place. Though I do wonder what spell you have casted in order to get here, since you arrived here _without_ your staff…"

Merlin quickly lied: "Actually, I use a wand as well so I merely apparated here."

To prove his point, Merlin drew his wand from a pocket. He was grateful his clothes were enchanted so that only he was able to take out things from the pockets. He didn't want the Ministry to inspect his wand through their Wand Registry and realize he was using a 1000-year-old wand with the core of an Ancient Dragon scale (cough-Kilgharrah) and Rowan Wood (cough-Isle of the Blessed). That would be a little harder to explain. But at first glance, his wand looked just like any other wand.

"Oh, I see…" Dumbledore said and for the first time seemed to be a little disappointed by something.

Merlin mentally smirked: 'Two of us can play this game, _old_ man.'

"Still - interesting that you managed to bypass the Anti-Apparition Spell around the school…"

Merlin groaned silently and muttered curses under his breath while the Headmaster chuckled.

"Well then… before we come back to the castle, perhaps it would make your introduction to the other members of the staff a bit easier, if I could call you by your true name, _Mr. Druid_."

Merlin stopped walking and stared at the Headmaster before he burst out laughing: "Did you really just hire me without even knowing my name?"

"It might have slipped my mind." Dumbledore answered while his eyes twinkled.

Merlin shook his head fondly. This was definitely the strangest recruitment he had in the last 1500 years.

'Oh, well. Down the rabbit hole I go.' Merlin thought with a sigh.

"My name is Michael Samuel Ambrosius and I am a Druid of the Iseldir Clan. I work as a reporter for _The New York Ghost_ \- or used to at least... Anyhow, I am looking forward to our partnership, _old man_!"

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **Eeeh… Did I say it was going to take a week for another chapter? Surely not, right? (Awkward laughing fading into the background) Anyhow! I just… Wow! Over a 100 follows, 70 favs and 30 reviews?! Now I only feel worse for taking so long with this chapter. Thank you so much! Unfortunately school is killing me right now, so I can't say for sure how long until the next chapter… I want to say about a month but we'll see…**

 **Anyway, please tell me what you thought about this chapter – I would like to improve if certain parts feel wrong (please no hates though). This was a small chapter since I haven't got much free time and hopefully by making the chapters smaller I can upload more often... Eric is an OC who will make an appearance later on but I'm not sure how much I'll use him so just a little heads up (He's Merlin's friend who knows the truth about Merlin - I mean come on! Merlin needs someone to talk to, right?). Also, Merlin doesn't take well when people mention their age, it's a touchy subject for him. Oh, and the Staff of Avalon – it shouldn't be considered an OC, right? Technically, she can't even talk so…**

 **Until Next Time!**


	4. CH 4 - Small Talks, Part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter.**

* * *

 **Small Talks Part 1 – Of Staves, Bugs and the Coming Doom**

"Sooo - let me get this straight... that muggle appeared out of nowhere, saved you from You-Know-Who, helped Cedric, passed out, insulted Fudge and disappeared without any explanation... that all?" Ron asked as they were finally alone.

Harry shrugged: "Yeah, basically."

The Hogwarts Express left the Hogsmeade station half an hour ago. Harry, Ron and Hermione managed to find a compartment for themselves. Harry felt like it was the first time he could relax in the last month. After the Tournament everything became a bit of a blur and it wasn't until the End of the Year Feast, that the past events really set in for the Boy Who Lived.

After all, it's not every day that the world's most powerful dark wizard of all times uses your blood to come back from the dead (or whatever state he was in) and challenges you - the person who may or may not have been responsible for his death - to a duel for life, only to escape with a promise of future death (Harry's this time...). Harry felt like he recovered rather quickly for a fourteen-year-old.

"Blimey!" Ron said as he heavily sat down back on his seat. "And are you sure he was a wizard, Harry?"

"Weren't you listening Ron? Harry said the man used magic to defeat the Death Eaters and heal Cedric!" Hermione berated the boy.

"But he looked like a muggle!" Ron defended his case.

"Looks aren't everything, Ronald!"

"Have you seen Malfoy!? That person is the walking representation of arrogance! Just look at his-"

"Anyway!" Hermione cried out and interrupted Ron's passionate speech. "I am more curious about something else. Harry, you said Mr. Wizard used a staff?"

"Yes. Is something wrong with that?" Harry asked.

"No, it's simply, eh, unusual..." Hermione admitted and furrowed her eyebrows as she thought about it.

"Dad said he once had a colleague who used a staff." Ron mused. "They took him to St. Mungo three years later. He went nuts. Apparently he kept on refusing to let anyone pass through a certain corridor or something. Dad had to go on a special lecture about the dangers of muggle literature after that..."

"Weren't you paying attention in the History Magic?" Hermione asked after Ron finished providing his piece of (unhelpful) information.

"No." Harry and Ron deadpanned.

Hermione sighed and shook her head: "Before the invention of wands, wizards used other things to channel their magic. Staves were one such examples, however, since wands are much more efficient, they have become a norm over the years."

"So... what - Mr. Wizard comes from a time when wands didn't exist yet?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Well, Harry, did Mr. Wizard look to be over a few centuries old?" Ron joked. "You know - like a walking mummy?"

"Ridiculous notions aside." Hermione continued, choosing to ignore Ron. "Only certain wizards use staves nowadays and most of them are from very old traditional families."

"Wait - you're saying Mr. Wizard was a pure-blood?" Harry asked with a frown.

"Not all pure-bloods are like the Malfoys, Harry." Hermione sighed. "Unfortunately, I can't say for sure which families might still use staves instead of wands. There might even possibly be other groups who refuse to use wands… I wish I could go to the Library to do some research and-"

"You want to go back to school now that the summer finally started?" Ron screamed unbelievingly.

"Research is important, Ronald! I can't find anything reliable about magic in muggle fairy tales!" Hermione defended angrily.

"Well, I guess that's all we can do for now." Harry sighed as he sat back in his seat. He wanted to find out more about Mr. Wizard, but it would have to wait. Besides who knew - maybe Harry would get a chance to speak to the mysterious man again!

Yeah... Harry wasn't very optimistic...

It was more likely the man would start screaming about the importance of staves while blocking a corridor than start a serious conversation with Harry about the future of the wizarding world.

"It's a pity. I thought it would be nice to have someone on our side, who others would think is crazier than me." Harry said in a forcefully cheerful voice.

"Oh Harry, not everybody believed Rita Skeeter's words!" Hermione tried to soothe her friend.

"Yeah, just most of them..." Ron mumbled. Hermione elbowed the boy. _Painfully_.

"Anyway, you don't have to worry about Rita anymore." Hermione said with a shrug. "I have her inside my purse."

"Ye-yeah! See, Hermione has the witch inside her purse! No need to worry!" Ron quickly added to escape further anger of Hermione's. After a moment of silence, the ginger blinked. "Wait - WHAT?"

"Well, I mean..." Hermione said and fidgeted uncomfortably. "I sort of discovered she was an animagus. Her form was a bug, you know, that's how she got all that nasty information! And that time at the hospital wing, I kind of... you know..."

"Caught her and put her inside your purse?" Harry finished, as he put the facts together. Hermione shyly nodded in confirmation.

"Merlin's pants! Hermione, you are a genius!" Ron laughed as Harry grinned and Hermione blushed underneath the praise.

"An-anyhow - as long as I threaten to use her secret against her, she won't be able to lie about Harry anymore." Hermione quickly explained as if trying to justify her actions. Not like she needed to anyway. When she took the unfortunate beetle out (who was stuck inside a glass), both of the boys simply thought it to be brilliant, as they admired the animagus inside the glass.

"Wicked!" Ron snickered and Harry nodded in agreement. Seeing the problem of his many troubles stuck in such a humiliating position was a strangely satisfying feeling.

"What are you going to do with her?" Harry asked curiously.

"I will let her go once we get to back to London." Hermione answered as she hid the unfortunate journalist inside her purse again.

"Wait a second." Ron furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Isn't this considered kidnapping? What if she turns you in after you let her go?"

"Don't be ridiculous Ron." Hermione said dismissively. "Unregistered animagi have a much longer time sentence in Azkaban than kidnappers. Besides, I can argue kidnapping her was an act of self-defense or service to the country by capturing a dangerous animagus."

"Erm, riiiiight..." Ron sweatdropped. "Why do I have a feeling, she's already thought this through, Harry?"

"Let me guess - she did her research?" Harry chuckled as Hermione glared daggers at the two boys.

However, before Hermione had a chance to retort, multiple sounds of fired spells could be heard behind their compartment door. Harry quickly got to his feet with his wand out and run to check what was going on.

The sight that greeted him was… very interesting. Two identical looking Gryffindors, a pissed off Hufflepuff and three humps of bodies that looked like Slytherins.

To Harry's greatest pleasure, those three bodies seemed to belong to Malfoy and his gang. The Weasley twins stared at the Hufflepuff with eyes filled with respect.

"Well, George, brother dearest." One of the twins said. "Remind me to never make this guy angry."

"Agreed." The other ginger said as he nodded sagely. "No testing our latest products on him."

"Cedric, Fred, George - what's going on?" Harry asked with a grin as he put the facts together.

"Ah, sorry, Harry." Cedric Diggory apologized while smiling and without a single sign of regret. "This Malfoy kid was annoying me for ages, going on about the superiority of Slytherins and what not. And well, now that I know a whole bunch of jinxes back from the Tournament… it was too tempting. Especially as he was rudely eavesdropping on your conversation."

The Hufflepuff shrugged as if it explained everything and grinned at Harry. The Boy Who Lived happily returned the gesture.

"Well, thanks for that." Harry said gratefully with a smile. He'd preferred it if Malfoy didn't know much about Mr. Wizard and Hermione's, ehem, _service_ to the country.

"Hey, what are friends for, no?" Cedric laughed as he put his wand back in his pocket.

"Well, if anyone's interested we helped too!" George said with a raised hand as his twin nodded fervently.

"Yeah! Even if we mostly did it because he stole our idea of listening for more blackmail material on our little baby brother!" Fred said seriously.

"I will kill those-!"

"You guys want to come inside and play some Exploding Snap?" Harry laughed and interrupted his enraged friend. "Oh, and you can leave the trash outside."

* * *

"So - you really don't remember anything?" George asked as they played their third round. The group of six students was enjoying their little quiet time, only occasionally interrupted by an explosion from their game.

Cedric sighed: "No, sorry. As I said before: last thing I remember is taking hold of the Cup, arriving at the graveyard and getting hit by a spell. Next thing I recall is waking up in the Hospital Wing being told what happened."

"Huh." Ron mumbled as he played his turn. "That sucks."

"Yes, because the alternative is so much better!" Harry said sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant!" Ron defended himself. "It's just that he missed You-Know-Who getting his ass kicked!"

"Actually I wanted to ask about that, Harry." Cedric admitted. "I didn't get the chance to thank the man who… saved our lives. Could you tell him that I'd like to talk to him?"

"Sorry, but I can't, since I don't know Mr. Wizard myself." Harry said surly. "If you meet him by any chance, please let me know. I'll do the same. Just watch out for his staff."

"Wait, you really don't know him?" Cedric asked surprised. "Then, does that mean that the man works for Dumbledore?"

"We don't know, mate!" Ron said angrily. "Dumbledore hasn't told us anything about the crazy man. For all we know he could be a muggle!"

"Oh, Ron! Would you stop it already?" Hermione sighed. "The man was obviously not a muggle!"

"How can you be so sure?" Ron retorted.

"Actually he had to be a wizard." Cedric interrupted their fight. "I had injury on my left arm but the man healed it. Or so Madam Pomfrey said."

"Huh? Really? Who knew?" Harry asked mockingly and pointedly looked at Ron. The ginger boy just mumbled something under his breath.

"Seriously though." Fred mused. "A man who can go toe to toe with You-Know-Who and is utterly unknown? I mean sure, he's not from England, but don't tell me a man like _that_ wouldn't be famous!"

"Yes it's rather strange." Hermione mumbled. "Unless he didn't want to be famous…"

The group finished playing their round and Cedric excused himself.

"Got to go. I have to say goodbye to Cho." He said apologetically, as Harry felt a wave of utter defeat course through his body. Harry wondered if Cho would even remember Harry's existence the next year now that she had a… boyfriend, who won the Triwizard Tournament. Well, technically the two boys tied, but what mattered the most was that Hogwarts got the Cup. Harry was sure that the next year he would go back into being the school's favorite punching bag and not its champion. Yay! There goes his chance for a date!

Cedric continued, unaware of Harry's depressing thoughts: "Anyhow, I'll surely be seeing you around. Harry if you meet the man again, could you please redirect him to me? Thanks a lot! Have a nice summer!"

With those words the Hufflepuff disappeared, leaving only a bunch of Gryffindors behind. And a very depressed Harry.

"Don't worry mate." George sympathetically patted the boy on his back. "One more year and he's out the school."

"And then the girl can be all yours." Fred nodded sagely.

Harry wept silently and nodded to the twins' words - before realizing what they said.

"Wa-wait! No! That's not what I meant-" Harry stumbled upon his own words as the twins ended up falling on the ground laughing.

"Blackmail material!" The twins sing-songed and kept on cackling.

"This was the real reason you came here for, right?" Ron frowned at the sight of his brothers.

"Of course!" Fred agreed happily. "We need enough material for our special edition of _The Embarrassed Stories from the Life of the Boy Who Lived_! The Galleons we'll make from the book will be enough to cover the cost of our shop!"

Just hearing the title of the book was almost enough to turn Harry's insides upside down. A desperate idea occurred to him.

"Any chance you guys can turn into a beetle?" Harry asked the twins.

"Eh? No. Why you ask?" George said and tilted his head in confusion. Harry ignored him and turned to Hermione.

"Got large enough glasses?" Harry asked the young witch with hopeful expression.

"I'm afraid not." Hermione answered with a poker face. "I also believe that this one would actually count as kidnapping."

"Erm, why do I get a scary feeling from your conversation?" Fred asked sweatdropping.

"Nevermind…" Harry sighed as he sat back heavily in his seat.

In the end, Harry had tried to give out his winnings from the Tournament (that he didn't want anyway) to the twins in exchange for a promise that the boys wouldn't say anything. Even then they refused to take the 1 000 Galleons.

And so Harry had to remind the twins that Cedric was not the only one who taught himself a couple of useful jinxes this past year. Needless to say, after taking a look at three specific Slytherins, the Weasley brother took the money more than enthusiastically.

Harry looked out the window with no small amount of satisfaction. All in all, his life could have been worse, Harry mused as he stared out at the scenery that showed they were almost in London. The trees gave away and were slowly replaced by more and more streets and houses. Animals could be rarely seen anymore, except for a single grey bird that, Harry realized, was following them for quite a while already.

"Hey, look!" Hermione said curiously as she saw what caught Harry's attention. "It's that merlin from before! I didn't think- ah! It fell!"

"Wow! What a stupid bird. It flew into a tree." Ron mumbled as he got around to collecting his stuff. Harry nodded in agreement to his friend's words and followed suit in packing his things while thinking.

* * *

Merlin groaned as he lay on the ground and cursed all the gods that he might have angered in his very long life that might be responsible for his suffering. Or, maybe it was a justifiable punishment for eavesdropping?

'Nah, that couldn't be it.' Merlin thought and once again took to the sky. He lazily flapped his wings as he followed behind the Hogwarts' Express. Should he have gone with some of his other forms? Human or dra… actually no - that one would not have been a good idea... at all.

Anyway, Merlin just planned on making sure the boy doesn't get himself killed before getting home or something. He learned a long time ago not to underestimate the (mis)fortune of the Chosen Ones. Then he'll be off to NYC and packing his bags. By Avalon was he looking forward to coming home! It has been a while since he lived in England, as he attempted to avoid the Wizarding Wars with all his might (and what good did that do to him, huh?). Then off to Cam- …Hogwarts we go!

'But I will show that ginger brat! Stupid bird he says… muhahahaha! Just you wait!'

Merlin laughed maniacally (as much as he could, given his current form) and decided here and there, that he was going to make the kids' life miserable. Sure, he was here to help Harry, but that didn't mean he couldn't have some fun while doing it, right?

And they will _never_ see him coming.

* * *

Harry shivered uncomfortably as he exited the Hogwarts Express.

Why did he have a feeling of impending doom just now?

His life wasn't that bad, right? Harry thought as he looked back on the past few years. Almost getting his head smashed by a troll. Nearly getting eaten by a three headed dog. Almost getting killed by the DADA professor who had Voldemort stuck on his head. Falling into the Whomping Willow with a flying car. Nearly losing his memory thanks to his DADA professor. Living in the same dormitory as a mass murderer and coincidentally the same man who was responsible for his parents' death. Almost getting bitten by his DADA professor-turned-werewolf (no hard feelings, just hoping to never have that happen again). Multiple cases of near burning/drowning to death or getting eaten during the Three Trials of the Tournament. And of course being used as a blood donor for Voldemort and having his DADA professor attempt to kill him. _Again_.

Hm… now that he thought about it… wasn't it a lot of DADA professors who wanted to kill him? What's up with that job? Weren't they supposed to 'protect' Harry from the Dark Arts, instead of well… _using_ them on him?

Anyhow - surely the next year couldn't be much worse? Voldemort might be back but Harry had actually felt a lot calmer than before. Harry Potter knew the Dark Wizard was coming for him. And The Boy Who Lived would be ready for him. He would be ready for anything.

…

Anything _reasonably_ expectable.

…

Let's just hope the next DADA professor isn't a lunatic as well...

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Again – I have no words to describe how happy I am so many people have decided to give my story a go and liked it! All of your follows make me want to keep it up so I hope I won't disappoint. And the reviews of course – ah, the beauty of reviews! They always make my day and so thank you so very much! I am also sorry to all of you, who eat ramen and choke on their food while reading my story (cough-PrincessWriter123). Also yes, Merlin can speak multiple languages and with different accents – sorry for that, Killua Lawliet, but as a non-native English speaker I always admired that ability so I gave it to Merlin as well. But worry not! Merlin is still 100% British, he just got tired of explaining his accent to all those annoying little wizards over the years so he does it for practical reasons mostly… Also, I just wanted Merlin's other first and second name to sound cool and start with an M and not be Martin (as many fanfics have it), but that was pretty much all the thoughts I put into it so… yeah, my naming ability sucks. Sorry!**

 **I'd love to reply to you all you wonderful people, but then the author's note would be too bloody long (as if they already weren't), so just know I love you all and will answer any questions/thought that aren't spoiler-y and could be interesting to more of you.**

 **And thank you all for your patience with me. This and the next chapter don't move the story along much, but I wanted to show the trio's thoughts (and Merlin's next chapter) on what's going. I also realized that a lot of my story was about Merlin, which is not what I exactly want – I want to do both Merlin and Harry justice so if you have any thoughts on that (or where I could improve) just share them with me.**

 **Also – how many of you read my Author's note up to this point? Just curious - would you prefer I made them shorter? I personally love writing them but I guess they can get a bit... annoying?**

 **Next Chapter: Small Talks Part 2 (Two more chapters until Hogwarts! Hang in there please!)**


	5. CH 5 - Small Talks, Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter. I only own my OCs, but then again, who would want to steal them...**

* * *

 **Small Talks Part 2 - Of Donkey Ears, Stalkers and I-Told-You-I-Am-Not-A-Prince-Dammit!**

* * *

 **NOTE FOR READERS** (from the Author): Sigh - to those of you who are in only for the story (I hope I can call it that) please skip the chapters 'Small Talks' (also this is Part 2 - I posted two chapters in one day so maybe check the Part 1 too if you want). You might miss some small spoilers/hints and/or connecting facts and/or Merlin shaninghams but nothing big. Yeah, I know it may be boring and not moving the story along much ( _Spartan Brony_ , thanks for pointing it out). However, it didn't feel right to me to skip from Merlin's recruitment to the first DADA lesson in one chapter. Thanks for understanding, I will try to move the story along better next time (but since I wrote 'Little Talks' I thought I might as well post them both so please hang in there with me).

Also an OC in this chapter (only in Part 2!), so skip it if you don't like that sort of things.

If you're ok with those two facts, please read on. Thanks :)

* * *

"...so I won't have much time before heading off to Hogwarts. Man, I had no idea quitting a job could be so noisy! What's up with that?" Merlin complained to the mirror while he was finishing packing his things.

A chuckle could be heard from the mirror: "Well, no matter how much you may try, my dear friend, you are rather - how should I put it? Flashy?"

Merlin turned around and dangerously glared at the mirror: "Flashy?"

"Flashy, eye-catching, conspicuous, sticking out, easily noticeable… should I go on, oh Greatest Wizard of All Times, or do you get what I mean?" The mirror said cheekily. Or rather, the blue-haired man that Merlin could see through the mirror.

Merlin sighed: "Warlock, Eric. A warlock. I hate you when you call me that, you know?"

The other man laughed: "Nah, you love me. I'm the only one willing to help you play tricks on the others back at the office, remember?"

"You mean you're the one constantly forcing me to use my magic to enchant a pair of donkey ears on the other aurors." Merlin mumbled and corrected his friend as he went back to the wardrobe for his clothes.

"Aah! A classic!" Eric laughed and sat back in his chair with a blissful look while Merlin rolled his eyes.

The warlock used magic to enchant the mirrors between flat and Eric's office at the MACUSA headquarters to work as a two-side scrying panel at the beginning of the two men's relationship. Back then, they were simply a rookie auror and journalist, looking for a better access to information. They formed a dual beneficial partnership that soon turned into strong friendship, based on their shared love for pranks and disrespect to their superiors. They soon became known as the Magical Menace Duo (certainly a unique title among the many Merlin had been gained in his life). Somewhere on the way, Eric learnt of Merlin's true identity and ever since then Merlin's life became a lot more interesting. And a lot more troublesome.

"You know, remember _that_ time we-" Eric begun and Merlin could _feel_ the smugness of his friend on the other side of the mirror.

"Eric, we agreed to never talk about _that_ time. Mention _that_ time ever again and you will be stuck with donkey ears for a month." Merlin spoke in a cold voice that left no place for arguments. _That_ time, Merlin… he… oh, the nightmares...

Ehem, anyway, moving on with the story.

It was more than a month ago that Merlin accepted the position of a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. He had flown back to the U.S. after he signed his new contract, just to tie some loose ends back at the _New York Ghost_ and say bye to his friends. A decision, he found himself greatly regretting right now.

Eric laughed and waved his hand over Merlin's threat dismissively: "Come on! Someone needs to keep you on your toes. Otherwise you would have turned into a grumpy old man!"

"I'm not grumpy!"

"Ah! But you admit you're old!"

"..."

"I hate you." Merlin gritted out through his teeth and turned his back to the mirror. No, he was not acting like a small insulted kid. He simply went to take more clothes from the wardrobe.

"Merlin, friend, we already talked about this - I think you have two verbs confused..." Eric sighed with fake disappointment. When Merlin refused to answer, the blue-haired man rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Merlin. You are too easy to read. I'm surprised Dumbledore or Voldemort haven't figured you out entirely." He teased Merlin. However, behind the _many_ layers of teasing, the warlock could hear actual concern in his voice. The immortal sat down on the bed as he started opening a Chocolate Frog he found inside one drawer.

"You do realise that I am more powerful than the two of them combined, right?" Merlin said with a raised eyebrow. He didn't brag, he was simply stating a fact.

"And so modest…" Eric muttered silently under his breath before continuing. "That doesn't mean you'll always win. An unexpected attack, magical trap that throws you off for just a tiny moment and…" Eric finished his sentence ambiguously with a wave of his hands.

Merlin sighed: "Trust me, Eric, I know that. But if I want to help Harry I can't do it from the other side of the world. And if I have to face endless scrutiny of wizard _centuries_ younger than me, in order to help Harry, than that is what I'll- do..." Merlin finished lamely as he stared with utter hatred at the card he received from the Chocolate Frog.

"Oh boy." Eric mumbled as he saw his friend expression. "Here we go again."

"This- this utter #%$¥£!" Merlin screamed as he maliciously burned down the card. "I am not a bearded man! Dragoon was just a disguise, dammit! And I am _NOT_ a prince! So would you bloody stop calling me the 'Prince of Enchanters', thank you! If the prat ever learns of it… He'll _never_ shut up about it!"

"Ehem!" Eric cleared his throat pointedly - yes, for an auror the man was about as inconspicuous as a dragon in the middle of Times Square. Seriously, Merlin tested it. It was _that_ one time they never talked about.

"What? You have a cold?" Merlin retorted angrily as he bit of the head of the chocolate frog.

"What?" Eric blinked before shaking his head. "Oh right, nevermind. Listen, have you checked on the kid lately?"

"Eh… no. I am not a stalker you know!" Merlin said with a roll of his eyes.

After a rather pointed look Eric gave Merlin, the warlock conceded: "...Fine, I may have spied on him between Hogwarts and his home at Privet Drive - if you could call it that… But it was just that one time, I swear! anyway, Harry has a really powerful protection charm around him when he lives with that family. I have no idea how it's possible, but it feels like a spell of the Old Religion. I want to test Harry on it once I meet with him again..." Merlin said thoughtfully. He had a theory that if proved correct… well, let's just say things were going to get very interesting.

Merlin shook his head and his attention went back to the present: "Anyhow… there's no way Riddle can attack Harry while he lives with his blood relatives. So no - I have not checked on Harry lately. I had my own stuff to sort out with _The Ghost_ , the flat and that sort of things. Not to mention that I'm not his nanny! I am actually pretty sure he would strongly object if he knew I had spied on him in order to 'keep him safe'. He's teenager right now for Avalon's sake! Ever heard of the dreaded rebellious stage of life?"

Eric shook his head: "Well, being a teenager, protection charms or whatnot, did not stop him from almost getting expelled."

"What?" Merlin's jaw dropped unbelievingly. "What happened?"

"Well, I can't say for sure." Eric admitted begrudgingly as he went through some of the papers on his desk, until he found what he was looking for. "Something about underage magic. My contact at the British Ministry of Magic isn't exactly in the right department for this sort of information, but apparently, there is supposed to be a disciplinary hearing that will determine the boy's fate. For some reason, Minister Fudge wants to keep the hearing a secret until it's over, so you won't find anything about it in the news, I'm afraid…" Eric ended with a shrug.

"Well, that's just bloody wonderful." Merlin said as he threw his hands in the air. "I leave him alone for a month and the kid gets in trouble! I swear, this is _exactly_ why I avoid the Chosen Ones! ... Wait a second..." Merlin tilted his head to a side while looking at his friend. "why would your contact inform you about Harry's situation? I thought you used them only for checking criminals' case files that might help with your investigations?"

Eric shrugged: "That's true, but we aurors usually get our hands on all sorts of information, since we have to be kept up to date on everything that's going on. So I thought it might come in handy if I convinced my contact that I needed all the newest rumours about Harry Potter. Fortunately, my contact owed me a favor after I helped him on his last case and so he didn't ask too many questions…"

Merlin blinked: "Huh, and you call _me_ stalker? But why did you do it?"

"Well since a certain old man decided to go and teach the said kid." Eric answered with with a roll of his eyes before huffing angrily. "And leave me behind!"

"The fate of the world, Eric. The fate of the world!" Merlin repeated clearly as he checked the wardrobe one last time.

"The pranks, Merlin. The pranks." Eric said dreamily before breaking in laughter at seeing Merlin's unbelieving expression. "Just joking. Go save the world, old man!"

"Call me old one more time and I will blast you into space." Merlin mumbled and closed his suitcase. Finally! The great enemy of Merlin's was finished - packing!

"It looks like someone inside the Ministry wants to get rid of Harry." Merlin mused out loud as he sat back on his bed, with the mirror right in front of him. "It does make sense - Dumbledore scared Fudge out of his mind… have you heard of the new position of the Hogwart's High Inspector?"

Eric nodded and Merlin spatted out his next words: "That sorry excuse for a wizard thinks he can control Hogwarts! One of the most amazing things about the school is its independence upon the Ministry - and now that stupid prat sends a toad to look after the school for him. For Avalon's sake, the woman proposed the new anti-werewolf laws - how can anyone expect her to be 'impartial and therefore the most suitable judge of right morals for our children', as Fudge put it?" Merlin shook his head in disgust. Eric stayed silent for a while before crossing his arms over his chest and smirking at Merlin.

"Well I for once don't envy you!" He said. "That's going to be one hell of a mess to clean up!"

"You're not helping…" Merlin sighed as he laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling.

Eric shrugged: "Yeah well, I ain't the Greatest Warlock to ever live, am I?"

"It's warlo-" Merlin froze and stared at his friend in disbelief. "You said it right?"

Eric rolled his eyes. "I'm more surprised you haven't started doing your research on what you've missed over the last fourteen years of the kid's life. You mean to tell me, you seriously haven't checked up on the kid all this time?"

Merlin groaned out: "As I said before, I am not his nanny! I don't plan on making every decision for him! I'll just make sure he knows how to fight well enough to survive his next encounter with Riddle - isn't that is what a DADA teacher should do? So, I'm not going to try and find out every single one of his secrets and plans. I'll just try to make sure he has the skill to go through with any plan he might come up with!" the warlock finished with a shrug and exited the room.

"Why do I have a feeling something will go wrong with that plan, _Chosen One_? Aren't you guys known for terrible luck? You aren't an exception to the rule you know…" Eric mumbled under his breath before glaring hatefully at all the papers on his desk. Why did no one ever tell him being an auror meant so much paperwork, dammit!

"What did you say?" Merlin asked curiously. He couldn't hear his friend as he was checking the living room for any things he might have left behind.

"Nothing…" Eric sighed while going through the papers on his desk. After a while he simply took them all and threw them into a nearby bin. And then set them on fire. They were all just complains about his disrespectful behaviour anyway… How come Merlin could get away with it and not him?

Merlin took a last look around his flat, before coming back into the bedroom: "Alright, that should be all. Hopefully, I haven't forgotten any of my magical relics lying somewhere around the apartment. I don't think I want a no-maj discovering any of them - that might be a little awkward to explain..."

"Actually, what _are_ you going to do with them? I don't think giving Dumbledore yet more reasons to figure you out would be a good idea - and having a bunch of stuff from the last millennium might do just that..." Eric asked curiously as he was happily poking the office fire with a stick.

Merlin shrugged: "I'll put them inside my vault back at Gringotts when I go get my money - I can't exactly pay with _Dragots_ in Britain anyway… though it might be a little hard with the _guide_ Dumbledore sent for me to help me get settled. I mean, seriously - I was there at the opening day of the Diagon Alley. I know that place better than anyone!"

"Well, they hardly know that now do they?" Eric asked with a raised eyebrow. "It sounds to me like the Headmaster is rather interested in you."

"Yeah, well, I kind of get it." Merlin admitted unwillingly. "If someone saved the prat's life I would gladly accept their help - after making bloody sure I knew he wasn't a traitor. Dumbledore was actually surprisingly trusting, all things considered..."

Eric pointedly cleared his throat in order to stop Merlin from any of his further musing: "Well then - happy travel?"

"Yeah." Merlin agreed and threw a smile at his friend. "I'll send news over Archimedes once he stops brooding and comes back. I swear, that owl has waaay too big of an ego!"

"Wait - Archimedes can cross over the ocean? How?" Eric asked disbelievingly. It was said to be almost impossible for owl to survive such a long and strenuous flight.

"Dunno. I stopped asking questions when it comes to Archie a long time ago." Merlin shrugged. Archimedes was his owl he got from Salazar 9 centuries ago. How was it still alive? Well, Merlin didn't even want to know. The Lord of Slytherin had a hobby of collecting the strangest of animals. Merlin was sure of one thing though - Salazar gave him the owl out of spite. The owl just enjoyed ruining Merlin's life _way_ too much.

"Okay… I'll hold you to that." Eric shook his head before doing a dismissing notion with his hand. "Now go! Get those bloody huge ears out of there!"

The warlock glared. Suddenly his eyes flashed gold and Merlin smirked at his unsuspecting blue haired friend: "I could say the same. Goodbye my dear friend!"

Merlin then dashed out the flat and down the stairs while his invisible suitcase magically followed behind him. He wanted to be off the continent before Eric had a chance to find a _real_ mirror.

For while Eric was merely a wizard of the Modern Magic, the auror could be really scary when sending hexes and jinxes after his enemies.

"MERLIN!"

Or people who enchanted him a pair of donkey ears…

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **So - two chapters at once? Yeah… Let's just say I kind of guessed some people would be disappointed by a chapter with an OC so I wanted to post them at once, hoping less people would be let down. I separated them in two parts so that people who don't like OCs could skip Part 2.**

 **Mission failed. Apparently some people don't like Part 1 either. I don't know if I should laugh or cry…**

 **Anyhow, if you are one of those amazing people who read on despite the chapter warnings, my OC and you even** _ **read**_ **the Author's note - guys, I love you. Next chapter will hopefully have something more story-interesting for you. I already wrote it, but will probably have to delete some parts of it so that it won't bore you to death…**

 **Actually, screw this. This is my story. I'll post all of it next week. (I'm also too lazy to do the erasing and there is something story-wise important so I have to post it anyway)**

 **Again, thanks for all the reviews - please tell me if you think I should keep writing/posting chapters like this or not. I don't guarantee I will be able to stop myself but I'll try.**

 **Until next time!**

 **Next Chapter: Merlin Has To Enter A Non-Existing Vault (the last extra chapter before Hogwarts!)**


	6. CH 6 - Merlin Has to Enter his Vault

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or Harry Potter. I only own my OCs. Yes, there is one in this chapter – it was either that or keep calling him 'Head Goblin' the entire time…**

* * *

 **Merlin Has to Enter a Non-Existing Vault - and Comes to Regret It**

Merlin wondered for the tenth time that day why exactly he agreed to this thing. Seriously - he was the most powerful warlock to ever live _and_ he was over a millennium old. It was so _not_ his style to have to hide himself from a wizard in his twenties that was sent to spy on him by his new employer.

Dumbledore was seriously determined on figuring Merlin out. Sure, the warlock didn't blame him. If back at Camelot an obviously powerful sorcerer saved Arthur's life and managed to bypass some of Camelot's most powerful protective spells, Merlin would do his best to find out everything he could about the man as well, no matter how friendly he might seem. But it was a serious pain in the butt for Merlin having to hide himself from them.

Merlin sighed and irritably exited the small alcove he hid inside. Seriously, how was he supposed to discreetly enter his vault at the bottom of Gringotts if one of their own workers was spying on him?

Bill Weasley was a kind young man that Merlin quite liked until he realized it was impossible to get rid of him. The man was surprisingly tenacious and hellbent on following Dumbledore's orders of not letting Merlin out of his sight. It took the self-proclaimed Master Spy of Camelot _thirty minutes_ to shake the man off - and that was only thanks to a certain beautiful colleague of Bill's that the poor young man probably had a crush on. Not that Merlin blamed him, he was pretty sure the lady was related to a Veela.

Merlin took a careful look around himself. It looked like Mr. Weasley was so taken by the woman he completely forgot about his task. Not that Merlin was complaining, he thought with a smirk as he quickly made his way to the Gringotts Wizarding Bank. He carefully maneuvered his way through the entrance and confidently walked up to the nearest free goblin before breaking into perfect Gobbledegook.

"Good morning." Merlin greeted the goblin and enjoyed seeing the goblin's surprised face at being spoken to in his mother tongue. "I have come to deposit some of my things at my safe as well as take out my money."

"Erm… Yes, of course…" The goblin answered after quickly regaining his bearings. "May I have your name and your key, Sir?"

"Myrddin Wyllt - and I'm afraid I do not have any key. I am the owner of the _Scarlet Vault._ " Merlin stated calmly and watched the poor goblin's reaction. The goblin froze for a moment and stared at Merlin before he finally seemed to recognize who he was talking to. The goblin bulged out his eyes at the warlock in shock before quickly excusing himself and rushing out of the room.

Merlin sighed and waited impatiently. Merlin was initially not greatly fond of goblins, due to his very first encounter of their kind back at Camelot when he almost got executed because of that one particular goblin. However, the goblins nowadays were very different from the first one Merlin met (they still loved gold above all else though, no change there…). After Merlin heard of the first Wizarding Bank in England he was happy to be able to store some of his personal belongings there. After all, Hogwarts was already a school back then and Merlin did not feel very safe knowing some students might accidentally come stumbling over his stuff.

So, Merlin approached the founder, a goblin named Gringott, to ask for a secure vault from both outside and inside. To Merlin's great surprise, Gringott recognized Merlin as Emrys. He then proceeded to inform the flabbergasted warlock that Emrys should not expect the goblins to serve him (as if Merlin ever wanted anyone to) but that they were willing to give him one the highest secure vaults in the Bank and that due to his immortality, the goblins expect their payments paid every 30 years. He then informed Merlin that if he ever reveals the secrets of the Bank, he will be caught, tortured and locked inside his very vault for all eternity, since the death sentence could not be carried out on an immortal.

Needless to say, Merlin was impressed.

Back to present time, the goblin finally came back and calmly asked Merlin to follow him. The warlock could see him (and every other goblin in the room now that Merlin thought of it) giving him sideway looks. Merlin steeled himself and let it not show how uncomfortable those looks made him feel. 1500 years and Merlin was still not used to the popularity he received from various magical creatures and societies. He much preferred the Modern Wizards who didn't have the 'That-Man-Is-Emrys' sixth sense. Seriously, the druids were already bad enough, not to mention the many other magical creatures that could recognize him merely by looking at Merlin. Though, he was certainly never going to get used to being called on as an expression by modern wizards…

"Merlin's beard! Is that the Head of Bank?"

… Just like that. Merlin sighed and uncomfortably shifted on his feet upon hearing that. Just a moment later he stood in front of a different goblin whose clothes marked him as their leader.

"Emrys." The Head goblin greeted Merlin rather coldly and nodded his head in a barely visible bow.

"Ah! Noxart, long time no see." Merlin greeted the goblin with a large grin that quickly disappeared after noticing the odd looks he received from the many wizards in the room. "Could we perhaps take this somewhere more private?"

Noxart grumbled something incoherently, turned on his heels and decisively headed towards the door that led down to the carts station. Once they were out the main room and alone, Merlin visibly relaxed and his famous grin was back on his face.

"So, you're still the Head of the Bank? That makes it… what? Over twenty years since you've taken over the Bank after your father?" Merlin asked curiously.

"Twenty-three years." Noxart corrected Merlin indifferently as he led them towards a cart. "It has also been seventeen years since your last visit and twenty-five years since your last payment."

"Huh, you know the dates for every single one of your clients or am I that special?" Merlin asked cheekily.

Noxart gave Merlin a look that would rip apart any lesser man: "You are Emrys. Do you know what that means in Gobbledygook?"

"Eh - immortal?"

"No, annoying. And yes, the translation came from you. Now get in the bloody cart so that I can get back to my work." Noxart retorted grumpily as he sat behind the cart's controls.

Merlin chuckled at Noxart's antagonistic behavior before taking a seat behind the goblin as the cart got moving. Merlin has known Noxart for a long time. But, among all the Head Goblins Merlin met over the years, Noxart came the closest to Gringott in terms of his behavior and treatment of Merlin. Apparent hostility with begrudgingly admitted respect. He just refused to treat Merlin as the most powerful warlock to ever live and that suited Merlin just fine. He hated when people worshipped him.

Down the many twists and turns they went, past the many hidden protective charms and barriers that Merlin felt them passing through. The Gringotts were one of the few magical places in the world, where Merlin's magical sixth sense went haywire and refused to work (the pyramids or El Dorado were another such examples). For that reason, Merlin always withdrew his sixth sense when he came to the Gringotts. It did make him a little uncomfortable though. He came to rely on that sense quite a lot. Not to mention, who knew what kind of things the goblins had kept hidden down here...

The speed they travelled at might have made Merlin uncomfortable if he wasn't used to flying on a true dragon. They finally seemed to arrive at the bottom of the Bank and the warlock and goblin got off the cart. Noxart went on ahead without a word towards a seemingly ordinary cave wall. He then put both of his hands on the wall and waited. After a while the rock wall shook and silently moved aside to create a narrow pass that he and Merlin could easily walk through.

They arrived at the secret Labyrinth of Vaults of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

The idea behind the Labyrinth was simple - create a place underneath all other Vaults that would serve for the goblin's safe holding. During the construction, Gringott made sure no plans of this place existed in any of the maps or blueprints and all its mentions were erased from the history of the Bank.

To put it simply, the Labyrinth served for the safekeeping of goblin treasures that they accumulated (or stole, Merlin thought grimly) over the centuries. Merlin had no idea how much treasure there must have been, as another safety measure dictated, the Vaults were not numbered down here. For example - Merlin's Vault was the Scarlet Vault.

Needless to say, the moment Gringott explained to Merlin how the Labyrinth works, the warlock immediately agreed to his proposition of acquiring a vault there. After all, what other place is more suited for keeping his things, then a Vault that technically doesn't exist?

"Here we are." Noxart finally said as they arrived in front of large red safe door. "The Scarlet Vault. Please do _not_ take your time, I am in a hurry and I believe you would prefer I walk you out of here. Unless you wish to get stuck here for the rest of your very long life…"

"Thanks, Noxart. I will be out shortly." Merlin grinned at the goblin. The warlock then went towards the door and put his hand on it before pushing in some of his magic. After all, magic was unique to every individual and no one else had the same magic as Merlin, making it the best possible safety measure for his own vault. Sort of like having a unique _magic_ print.

The door accepted the magic and silently opened. Merlin could feel Noxart quietly attempting to see inside but Merlin quickly went through and closed the door behind him. After all, the goblins liked their own treasure so much they built a freaking non-existent system of vaults. Merlin liked to believe he had the right for keeping the insides of his own vault a secret.

Merlin took a moment to take in all the magical power that resided inside this room. The reason he wanted a vault that was protected from the inside as well was because he had so many powerful relics that emitted magic, he was worried traces of it would escape outside and draw unwanted attention. Merlin shook his head as he finally got used to it and calmly walked around the room.

Around the walls of the Scarlet Vault stood many shelves filled with magical objects. A bunch of expensive, non-magical objects laid on the ground along with gold and various gems that Merlin somehow got his hands on over the centuries but never really cared about enough to clean up (for a former royal manservant he could sure make a mess). But, it was the center of the room that Merlin wishfully walked towards to and gently put his hands on.

The moment Merlin heard of the many protections surrounding the Vault at Gringotts, Merlin knew he could trust this place enough to store his most important objects from his days back at Camelot. Many of them were around this room. The Throne of King and Queen. The Phoenix Stone. The Excalibur itself (as sharp as ever, thank you very much…) and so many others. But there was one he treasured quite possibly the most.

The Round Table of Camelot.

It was the symbol of not just Arthur, but of all his friends and the times they spend together. How many times did they sit around this Round Table? Be it discussing the future of the Kingdom, the most recent magical threats or just enjoying the time spend with their comrades and making fun of Gwaine's hair - this table saw it all and remembered. And so did Merlin.

There were times over the centuries that Merlin fell hard. The worst were the years after the fall of Arthur and Albion. Merlin felt his life served no further purpose and he could not understand why the Old Religion kept him alive. It took the warlock many years until he believed in the prophecies again, but even then it was merely a shiver of hope in a great space of despair. It was… _bad_ , to say the least.

It wasn't until Merlin had a chance to talk to Arthur again, that he finally managed to resemble himself again. The bloody prat made him promise to get his act together and stop being _whiny_ (Merlin almost personally choked the king to death for that remark). It took Merlin hours of talking with his friends, days of listening to cryptic prophecies from the dragons, years spent running from dozens of fangirling druids and a few _centuries_ to come back to his old self. Well, as much as he could anyway...

Merlin let a single tear fall down his face before he smiled gently and turned away from his memories. He opened his handback (enchanted so that it was bigger on the inside, magic sure is useful...) and started sorting out some of the artifacts inside. Hmm… he won't need the de-aging necklace but should he keep the one against boggarts?

Merlin walked around the room while pulling out certain objects to put them on the shelves, while others he decided to take with him to Hogwarts. He was just trying to pull out the Mjölnir (don't ask how Merlin got his hands on it… it's a long story he would prefer to forget). Huh, now that he's talking about overpowered magical weapons, maybe he should take Orna with him to Hogwarts? Merlin looked around the vault looking for his magical sword. He saw the weapon lying on a shelf on the opposite side of the room. The warlock began walking towards it, while avoiding the mess on the floor.

Times like these, Merlin wished he hadn't made the freaking promise to never change. Seriously, this was the one side of his personally he could live without.

That's what went through Merlin's head as he stumbled and clumsily began falling to the ground. In an attempt to stop his descent, Merlin caught onto a nearby shelf. Accidentally, he so touched the one object in the room he never wanted to see in his life ever again.

The Crystal of Neahtid. The _future-seeing_ Crystal Neahtid.

'You have got to be…' Merlin mentally facepalmed. It was too late to do anything else anyway.

And so the visions came.

Merlin standing in a dark corridor and burning a hole in the wall. Behind his back, unknowing to Merlin, he was silently watched by a wizard with greasy black hair. Damn, that guy needs to get a better shampoo, Merlin thought as the visions changed.

Merlin with Harry in a semi-destroyed classroom. The boy sending a spell at him, looking absolutely furious. The warlock was looking honestly shocked as the spell came his way.

Next scene. Merlin down in the familiar looking crypts, casting the bloody spell. Oh, and he was missing an arm. Good to know. And look, _another_ vision is on its way!

Merlin standing next to an injured wizard in dark green robes. Against them stood a man whose eyes shone gold. Both of the men looked familiar to Merlin. Both of them made Merlin groan in mental pain, before the scene changed again.

A strange gate with a veil shimmering in between the two sides. A man flying towards it as a mad witch was laughing maniacally.

New vision. The same veil again. A familiar looking woman walking out of it, with her eyes shining gold and a smirk on her face.

Merlin landed on the ground with a loud ' _thud_ ' while the crystal landed an inch away from his eyes. Merlin quickly closed them and blindly searched for a piece of cloth. He finally found something and quickly used it to wrap it around the Crystal. Satisfied with it being hidden very, _very_ deep inside the cloth, Merlin slowly opened his eyes. He numbly realized the piece of cloth was a cloak from one of the Knights before he groaned out and hit his head on the floor multiple times. He stood up and stumbled to take a seat on the nearest chair.

"Well that's just bloody brilliant." The warlock mumbled as he massaged his temples to ease the incoming headache. "Great going, _Mer_ lin. One would say you would learn to not do things like that. But nooo! You're still the same clumsy idiot you ever were. And you just had to touch the only thing in this room that shows you the bloody future!"

Merlin groaned and laid back in the chair- no, wait a second. He was sitting on Arthur's throne. Oh well, it's not like the prat can complain about it right now anyways...

Merlin's mind slowly came to terms that - _yes_ , he really did look into the future… _yes_ , Harry will want to kill him at some point (good luck with that one kid)... _yes,_ that bloody green-robed man will force him into activating the seal he swore he'd only use in the most dire of times. However, Merlin's mind kept replaying one particular scene over and over again.

Why, by the Triple Goddess, will he try to burn a wall?

* * *

 **Extra: Little Talks Part 3 - Mother's Worries**

"Oh, Merlin's beard, I am so sorry!"

"It's alright madam. It was mostly my fault anyway…" Merlin apologized and did his best to ignore the fact that the woman cried out his name and his non-existing body part as he kneeled down on the ground.

Merlin was walking out of the Bank so deep in thought, he accidentally walked into a ginger haired woman. Their collision resulted in the poor woman letting go of the things she held in her arms as they fell down to the ground. He was just helping her pick up the many books (huh, must be a mother of a Hogwarts student, going by the amount of textbooks present) when a particular book caught his attention.

" _How to Protect Your Family: A List of Household Protection Charms_ by Melinda Brooks?" Merlin asked out loud as he handed it to the woman. "That's quite the book you got there, madam."

"What? Is a mother not supposed to fear for her family's safety?" The witch retorted angrily with an embarrassed color to her cheeks as she tore out the book from Merlin's hand.

The warlock put up his hands to show he meant no offense: "That's not what I meant. It's just that the book is over a decade old and some of those charms are a little outdated. A better buy would be _A Thousand Spells for Keeping Your Home Safe_ by Terrence Woods. Some of those spells might be a bit drastic but they surely will keep Riddle- I mean, Voldemort away better than- oh!"

Merlin quickly threw out his arms to catch the falling books again. The witch suddenly screamed during Merlin's speech and let go of her things. Why would she do that? It's not like Merlin said anything wro-

Oh. He said Riddle's title. Damn, he forgot how people react to the name as if it were cursed. In some ways Merlin envied the Dark Lord. At least he didn't hear his name shouted by random wizards all the time…

"You- you-" the woman stared at him in shock before her narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "I _know_ you! Who are you?"

"Eh, aren't the last two sentences contradicting?" Merlin asked and blinked at the woman. Now that he thought about the woman did look slightly familiar… but it's not like you can expect over a millennium old man to remember all the faces of everybody he met.

"You're him!" She suddenly cried out and pointed a finger at Merlin threateningly.

"That didn't help me in remembering you at all, I'm afraid, madam." Merlin said sheepishly as he found himself slightly terrified of the woman and the look she was giving him. How can a witch in her fifties scare an immortal warlock who faced down immortal armies without batting an eyelid? Merlin felt sorry for whoever was a child of such formidable woman...

"Mr. Wizard! You saved Harry from You-Know-Who!" She went on not paying attention to his confusion. "And then you just disappeared before anyone could speak with you. That, young sir, made me very angry! And you left poor Harry behind completely confused, thinking he did something terribly wrong by leaving your staff behind!"

"Sorry…" Merlin managed to squeak out before he realized that wait - he was Emrys, the Lord of the Druids and the Most Powerful Warlock to Ever Live… he was pretty sure he was not supposed to be scolded so thoroughly by a witch 1450 years younger than him. Merlin nodded to his resolve in his head and quickly tried to regain his bearings.

Merlin coughed and straightened himself (when did he start cowering before the witch?) before he threw a friendly smile at the woman: "My apologies for that. My staff is very important to me and I was worried Rid- Voldemort," Merlin did his best to ignore the way the witch jerked at hearing the name, "might take it. I will be sure to apologies to Harry as well when I see him." Why did he feel the need to say that? The witch sure is terrifying… "And the name is Michael Ambrosius, actually. I believe you were at the Hospital Wing when I woke up?"

"Yes. I'm Molly Weasley." She introduced herself and finally stopped threatening Merlin with her finger. She seemed to calm down after Merlin apologized and promised to speak with Harry. "My son, Ronald, is close friends with Harry. I would like to thank you for making sure Harry came back to us safely."

"Oh, that was no trouble." Merlin said and winced at his own words. _Riiight, it was no trouble fighting off against Voldemort, the most terrifying and powerful Dark Wizard to these people. While I speak the truth, it does make me sound like I could defeat the man with a wave of my hand - which I probably could..._ "I'm just glad that both of the kids survived. How's the other boy?"

"Oh, you mean Cedric Diggory? He was in a better state than Harry. He was unconscious the entire time but after hearing how you saved both of them from You-Know-Who, his parents wish to thank you as well." Mrs. Weasley said and gave Merlin a look that dared him to refuse her.

"I am glad to hear that, but I don't want thanks for something that was a natural thing to do." Merlin answered honestly. He never did anything for praise or fame, even if it was nice to hear the prat admit he did something well for once. That part of him stayed the same over the centuries and Merlin seriously doubted it would ever change.

Mrs. Weasley blinked blankly a few times before she seriously asked him: "Are you sure you and Harry aren't related?"

"Eeh… I'm rather positive." Merlin answered. Gaius never had children and as far as he knew both of his parents had no siblings same as Merlin. And Merlin knew for a fact he had no children over the years. "Why?"

"Just that that is something Harry would say too. He never liked getting praised for how brave he was, facing You-Know-Who over the years and such…" Mrs. Weasley said with a faraway look and watery eyes. Merlin shifted on his feet uncomfortably. Suddenly he remembered the book Mrs. Weasley bought and his mind connected the facts.

"You shouldn't worry about them so much." Merlin said and tried to give Mrs. Weasley a reassuring smile when she stared at him incredulously. "I'm not saying they are safe, no one can claim that given the world we live in. There are dangers out there that Harry and even the rest of your family will certainly have to face, especially with Voldemort slowly coming back to his full power. But, do any of them want to die?"

Merlin asked and waited for the answer. Mrs. Weasley immediately screamed at him: "Of course not! Who do you take them for?"

Merlin shrugged and gave her a gentle smile: "Than trust them that they want to live. Trust that, when the time comes, they will fight and give it their all to come back to you. Trust in their strengths and help them get stronger. Keeping them shut behind a wall, protecting them from the dangers outside will only make them an easier target. It's hard, given that they are just children. They should experience the joys of growing up and not face the evils of this world. But that we can't change that. What we can do is make sure they are ready for whatever this world will throw at them. And then, once it's over, they will come out of this a better, stronger person."

Merlin ended his speech and felt a little self-aware. Damn, was that too much? He had no idea where that came from. Seeing Mrs. Weasley staring at him with her mouth slightly open, Merlin uncomfortably shifted on his feet and scratched the back of his neck.

"Anyway… those are just my thoughts. Hey, do you happen to be related to Bill Weasley? He was supposed to be my guide but I seem to have lost him somewhere…"

"Mr. Ambrosius!"

"Aaand, there he is…" Merlin said and turned towards his rescuer. "Mr. Weasley! I lost you for a moment there, hehe, sorry about that!"

Bill run towards Merlin and stopped while breathing heavily: "No - I am sorry. Fleur had a problem with one of her clients and asked for my help, ehem. Anywa- mum?"

"Ah, so you are related." Merlin mumbled and turned to look at poor Mrs. Weasley, who still seemed to be a little lost following Merlin's speech. She blinked slowly and turned her attention to her son.

"Bill?" She mumbled. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm spying… eh… I'm helping Mr. Ambrosius to get around the Diagon Alley. What are you doing here?"

"Oh? What am I…?" Mrs. Weasley looked at the books that Merlin was still holding after she let go off them. "Yes, I'm shopping for Ronald and- Oh, by Merlin's beard! I almost forgot! Did you hear the news?"

Mrs. Weasley suddenly woke up from her daydreaming and excitedly looked at Bill, who only looked more confused.

"What news?"

"Ronald is a prefect!" Mrs. Weasley cried out happily and went to clutch Bill's arm, as if to make sure he got the message.

"What? Really? That's amazing! But I thought for sure Harry…"

Merlin tuned out the rest of their conversation as he silently picked up the bag Mrs. Weasley accidentally let fall to the ground. Merlin then begun sticking the books inside of it while he made sure all of them were dust-free. Once he was satisfied with his work, he silently deposited the bag near Mrs. Weasley (after casting a spell to make sure it stayed clean and no one could move it but Mrs. Weasley) and silently excused himself from the excited mother and her smiling son.

Well then, where was he? Something about planning how to avoid all those future visions, only to know he'll fail miserably and end up causing them anyway...

Merlin knew there was a danger at Hogwarts (he saw no other reason why the green robed man would be with him in the vision) that he must deal with. The mysterious veil that looked way too familiar to Merlin's liking made Merlin _very_ uncomfortable. Not to mention that person falling towards it and _her_ walking out.

Oh, and let's not forget that Harry, the 'Boy Who Lived' and that got Merlin into this whole mess in the first place, will rather passionately try to kill him at some point, given the state of the room he saw inside the Crystal.

Oh what a wonderful school year ahead of him the warlock had.

 _Makes one glad to be alive_. Merlin thought with a rather excited grin as he cleaned his hands.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Yo! What up? The chapter is not moving the story much either? Well, I warned you before I won't be rewriting it. I did my best but I really don't want to delete** _ **everything**_ **except for the future visions – that would be a pretty weird chapter, right? Sorry if I sound mean but I have zero energy right now, am a bit moody and to top it off I'm nervous about any future bad reviews about boring chapters. Sorry folks, I'll do my best in the next chapter when Merlin** _ **finally**_ **gets to Hogwarts.**

 **Again – thank you all for your reviews and love. I'm glad people seemed to have liked Eric and he will quite possibly appear again (the story is not about him though, don't worry!). Noxart appeared spontaneously when I got sick of writing 'Head of the Bank' over and over again. Besides Archimedes, those are the only OCs that I plan will be in this part of the story. All other characters will be from Merlin or Harry Potter.**

 **Future visions are written in weird grammar on purpose as you probably guessed. I'd love to hear who you think is which mysterious person or situation :D. Little Talks Part 3 was again unexpected – I just did research for my story and felt super bad for Mrs. Weasley and decided to have Merlin reassure her a little. Poor woman, having an entire family made of Gryffindors…**

 **Anyhow – not sure when the next chapter will be. Hoping a month will be enough but I'll see about school work. Also I realized I have a lot of 'conversation' chapters and not much action. So, I'll have to rethink the story of my fanfic a little bit before I continue writing. I know what the final battle(s) will look like but I need to come with better middle of my story. (and then there are a bunch of different fanfics who occasionally force me to write them instead of** _ **Poor Warlock and Confused Wizards**_ **… but this one is still my priority for now!)**

 **Thank you for your patience and I hope I'll see you next chapter!**


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